July 2007
Measuring What Cannot Be Controlled?
If you are reading this article you are probably concerned by your individual, household and company impact on the environment. You will have no doubt made steps toward reducing your environmental impact such as switching to energy saving light bulbs, recycling your paper in the office or cutting down on car use where possible. But how good is your understanding of what impact such changes have in terms of carbon emissions?
The accuracy and usefulness of carbon calculators have been widely debated, with the government recently throwing their hat into the ring with the environment secretary, David Miliband, unveiling an online carbon footprint calculator designed to "cut through" the confusion on climate change and allow people to work out what practical action they can take.
The calculator, which uses government-recognised data, allows people to work out either their own carbon footprint or that of their household by answering questions about their energy use and travel habits.
As well as providing an estimate of how many tonnes of CO2 the individual or household is responsible for emitting each year, it also produces a personalised action plan advising people about what steps they can take to cut their emissions.
On completing the calculator the author was pleased to learn that my individual carbon footprint was calculated as being lower than the national average in all three areas measured, namely household energy bills, appliance use and transport use. However by its very nature some of the questions are necessarily general and the questioning process is not entirely thorough. For instance the user is asked whether or not they own a number of energy hungry appliances, in some cases the questioning goes further to try and ascertain to what extent the appliance is used, for other appliances, levels of usage are left to the calculator’s discretion.
Still is this calculator a step in the right direction? It is certainly in my opinion the most comprehensive and useful of the carbon footprint calculators I have used. Like all calculators it is a means to an end in so much as it encourages the user to make positive changes in the way they live and enables them to get some idea of how much carbon their current lifestyle emits into the environment. By breaking down your carbon footprint into three distinct sections it also makes the task of making improvements more manageable and seem more achievable.
The area where this calculator really excels however is in its personalised action plan, which provides a range of actions that can be undertaken by the user. These range in scale from those which are simple to implement and cost free to those which require some thought before implementation and paybacks measured in years. Best of all there is not the slightest mention of carbon offsetting, a ubiquitous accompaniment to early carbon footprint calculators.
The calculator, which was developed with the Energy Saving Trust, is a trial version, and will be developed using feedback and ideas from users. Further updates will be released over the next few months with the addition of more features to make it even easier for people to calculate their carbon footprint.
It is often said that that which cannot be measured cannot be controlled. This calculator will hopefully encourage more people to gain a real understanding of their current impacts and lead to renewed efforts in our everyday battle against climate change and carbon emissions. Whilst such improvements are welcome, it must not distract from the government’s vital role of enabling and enforcing individuals and business to make a real impact on carbon emissions.
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