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Understanding and Reducing Your Carbon Footprint

The Challenge: Keep Global Warming < 2°C

Greenhouse gas emissions, mainly from burning fossil fuels such as oil and gas, have warmed our

climate by +1°C from preindustrial levels. To avoid the most dangerous impacts of climate change,

scientists tell us (and all the major countries of the world have agreed) that we must limit global

warming to less than 2°C from preindustrial levels. For a typical Canadian, this means we need to reduce

our personal carbon footprint from around 20 tonnes today to less than 2 tonnes by 2050.

Source: Lindsay Wilson, Emit This (2013), www.shrinkthatfootprint.com

Housing29%

Travel26%

Food15%

Products16%

Services14%

Carbon Footprint for Typical Canadian = 18 tonnes

5.1 4.6

2.6 2.8 2.6

0

2

4

6

8

10

Housing Travel Food Products Services

Carbon Footprint for Typical Canadian (t CO2e/person)

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Where to Start: Calculate Your Carbon Footprint

It’s important to understand your carbon footprint to help identify the biggest opportunities to reduce

it. For most of us, heating our homes and driving our cars are the biggest contributors. What we eat and

our spending patterns can also make a big difference. To calculate your carbon footprint, you need

information on how much energy and other activities you “use” in a year, and a calculator like this:

Housing Input

Use Units

Emission

Factor Units Reference

Footprint

(metric tonnes)

Electricity (ON) 4,466 kWh/yr 0.13 kg CO2e/kWh www.carbonzero.ca 0.58

Natural gas 500 cubic metres/yr 1.99 kg CO2e/m3 www.carbonzero.ca 1.00

Heating Oil 900 litres/yr 3.15 kg CO2e/litre www.carbonzero.ca 2.84

Propane 50 litres/yr 1.54 kg CO2e/litre www.carbonzero.ca 0.08

Firewood 5 face cords/yr - (biogenic carbon) -

Waste Disposed 15 kg/week 0.45 kg CO2e/kg shrinkthatfootprint.com 0.35

City Water 250 litres/day 2.91 g CO2e/litre shrinkthatfootprint.com 0.27

5.11

Travel

Car 20,000 km/yr 187 g CO2e/km www.carbonzero.ca 3.74

Motorcycle 100 km/yr 153 g CO2e/km shrinkthatfootprint.com 0.02

Bus 800 km/yr 90 g CO2e/km shrinkthatfootprint.com 0.07

Rail 150 km/yr 101 g CO2e/km shrinkthatfootprint.com 0.02

Taxi 150 km/yr 202 g CO2e/km shrinkthatfootprint.com 0.03

Air 5,000 km/yr 154 g CO2e/km shrinkthatfootprint.com 0.77

4.64

2,600 ← Input kCal/day (average = 2600)

Food Average ← Choose Diet (Meat Lover, Average, No Beef, Vegetarian, Vegan)

Beef, lamb 6% % daily calories 16.01 g CO2e/kCal shrinkthatfootprint.com 0.93

Chicken, pork 10% % daily calories 4.27 g CO2e/kCal shrinkthatfootprint.com 0.40

Dairy 11% % daily calories 5.01 g CO2e/kCal shrinkthatfootprint.com 0.55

Cereals, bread 26% % daily calories 0.56 g CO2e/kCal shrinkthatfootprint.com 0.14

Vegetables 5% % daily calories 2.80 g CO2e/kCal shrinkthatfootprint.com 0.13

Fruit 4% % daily calories 4.63 g CO2e/kCal shrinkthatfootprint.com 0.15

Oils, spreads 26% % daily calories 0.60 g CO2e/kCal shrinkthatfootprint.com 0.15

Snacks 6% % daily calories 0.56 g CO2e/kCal shrinkthatfootprint.com 0.03

Drinks 6% % daily calories 2.20 g CO2e/kCal shrinkthatfootprint.com 0.13

100% 2.61

Products 500$ $/month

Electrical 14% % monthly spend 0.48 kg CO2e/$ shrinkthatfootprint.com 0.39

Household 16% % monthly spend 0.63 kg CO2e/$ shrinkthatfootprint.com 0.61

Clothes 17% % monthly spend 0.46 kg CO2e/$ shrinkthatfootprint.com 0.47

Medical 21% % monthly spend 0.29 kg CO2e/$ shrinkthatfootprint.com 0.37

Recreational 17% % monthly spend 0.56 kg CO2e/$ shrinkthatfootprint.com 0.57

Other products 15% % monthly spend 0.48 kg CO2e/$ shrinkthatfootprint.com 0.44

100% 2.84

Services 1,000$ $/month

Health 34% % monthly spend 0.20 kg CO2e/$ shrinkthatfootprint.com 0.82

Financial 18% % monthly spend 0.14 kg CO2e/$ shrinkthatfootprint.com 0.31

Recreation 22% % monthly spend 0.26 kg CO2e/$ shrinkthatfootprint.com 0.68

Education 4% % monthly spend 0.23 kg CO2e/$ shrinkthatfootprint.com 0.12

Vehicle 5% % monthly spend 0.37 kg CO2e/$ shrinkthatfootprint.com 0.24

Communication 5% % monthly spend 0.16 kg CO2e/$ shrinkthatfootprint.com 0.09

Other services 11% % monthly spend 0.25 kg CO2e/$ shrinkthatfootprint.com 0.33

100% 2.59

Total Personal Carbon Footprint 17.80

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More Life, Less Carbon: Reduce Your Carbon Footprint

There are many ways to reduce your carbon footprint that contribute to other goals you want to achieve

(e.g., simplifying your life, making your home more comfortable, saving energy, etc.). What’s important

is to identify a few of these and start doing them. Your choices will be unique to you, depending on your

own carbon footprint, what you value most and your life circumstances (e.g., where you live, if you are

building a new home, your job, etc.). Some examples are shown below.

Activity Rethink and Reduce High Carbon Activities

Improve Energy Efficiency Use Low Carbon Energy

Housing Smaller home

Reduce thermostat in winter

Reduce hot water consumption

Hang clothes to dry

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Compost organics

Energy audit

Insulation

Air sealing (with proper ventilation)

High performance windows

Thermal bridge free design

Passive solar design

Solar or other renewable energies

Wood heat

Travel Reduce air travel

Reduce distances travelled

Live closer to work

Walk or bike

Car pool

Use public transit

Use fuel efficient vehicles

Tune up your car

Electric vehicles

Biodiesel

Food Grow your own food

Eat less meat (esp. beef and lamb) and dairy

Don’t waste food

Eat local

Other Purchases Share, don’t buy

Pay the man: Prefer Services to Products

Purchase a few great things

Purchase durable things

Purchase used

Chose the most energy efficient appliances

Avoid “vampire loads”

Investments Divest from fossil fuels

Invest in low carbon/ renewable energy investments

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What Next?

Want to learn more about your carbon footprint, how to calculate it, and how to reduce it?

Sign up for one of our upcoming workshops on “Understanding and Reducing your Carbon Footprint”.

You will learn how to use a calculator or spreadsheet to convert your energy use and other data to your

carbon footprint. You will also learn how to choose the best ways to reduce your footprint, and estimate

the impact of these actions on your carbon footprint.

What you need to bring to the carbon footprint workshop:

A hand held calculator or laptop that runs Microsoft Excel;

Your annual energy use data (see page 2 for examples);

How far you drive each year and your vehicle model. We will use this information to estimate

how much gasoline or diesel fuel your vehicle uses in one year. If you know your actual annual

fuel consumption in litres that is better – it will provide a more accurate calculation of your

carbon footprint;

How far you travel each year by other means (e.g., bus, rail, air; see page 2 for examples);

Information about your diet (e.g., meat lover, average, no beef/lamb, vegetarian vegan); and

An estimate of what you spend annually on product and services (see page 2 for examples).

To learn more or arrange a workshop, contact us at duncan@duncannoble.com