Are you working out your impact on the planet? Is it important for you to know your specific impact, or what you can do to change and improve? We want to hear what works for you.
Having been at home for more than three months now, I’ve been wondering if what I’m doing has been better or worse for the planet.
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Having had to completely cut out all long haul flights and all but the most essential driving has undoubtedly been a positive change.
On the other hand, I’ve become more conscious of all of the resources I’m consuming by staying at home; more parcels being delivered, more food packaging, and more energy to heat and power the house.
Am I doing better or worse for the planet? And how can I aim toward better?

How big is your footprint?
Carbon footprint calculators are a common way of working out your impact.
These work out your footprint by converting the expected greenhouse gasses you generate through certain activities into their carbon dioxide equivalent.
One example, carbonfootprint.com, enabled me to work out specific activities such as flying, as well as how much energy I’m using at home, based on usage data I had from my energy bills.

Changing your behaviour
Having the data is helpful, but equally important is understanding what you can do to change your behaviour.
Some carbon calculators focus less on your data and more on how you can make this change.
The Lifestyle Calculator from SITRA (the Finnish Innovation Fund), is one example. Rather than inputting data, I worked through a series of questions and received 57 different tips on how to adjust my lifestyle to lessen my impact.

What works for you?
Have you worked out your environmental impact using a carbon footprint calculator? If you have, what did you do with that information?
If you haven’t, what is your reasoning?
Did you try either of the above examples? How would you rate them?
What improvements would you want to see incorporated to make them better for you to use?