Why and how
Do you want to learn how to reduce your carbon emissions to help limit global warming? The first step is to understand where your emissions come from and how much they are in total.
Use our Carbon Footprint Tracker to help identify and measure your personal carbon emissions.
Before you begin, please watch the following videos:
Introductory video: learn what the Carbon Footprint tracker is and what information you need to gather before using the Tracker.
How to Use video: a guide to how to use the Tracker and read the results. A help tool is also available on the Tracker.
What you see
The Tracker translates the information you provide into carbon emissions, wherever they arise.
The results show your annual carbon footprint and your carbon budget. The budget shows the emissions ceiling to aim for to help keep global warming within safe limits. The chart will look something like the one below, depending on how much information you have entered.
The tracker might show your emissions are within target, especially if you don’t buy much or travel far. If you aren’t within target and want to try to cut your emissions, your carbon footprint shows you where to look to make the most impact.
For most of us, the biggest source of emissions is the category labelled “stuff”, which is our spending on goods and services. Much of this may be hard to avoid so don’t feel guilty! The tracker is an information tool and makes no judgements.
That’s why it doesn’t offer any specific actions for reducing emissions. It’s about your lifestyle, and how you might change it if you choose to. Only you will know what are the easiest, most affordable changes to make to achieve the biggest possible reductions. There are links to resources and information so you can identify suitable actions.
Check the average footprint for your area
Another way to check your carbon footprint is by using the Impact Tool. This shows the carbon emissions for the average household in your local area and where they are produced. You can look at results for your parish, ward or local authority, or just enter your postcode.
When you have completed the Carbon Footprint Tracker, you can compare your results with those from the Impact Tool for the average household in your area to see whether your footprint is higher or lower than the average.
Use the map below as a shortcut to view results for your parish. Identify your parish and click on the map.
The Impact Tool was developed by the Centre for Sustainable Energy and Exeter University. It uses the same sources and approach as the Carbon Footprint Tracker, but because the latter is personalised it is more accurate and complete.
If you are a Teignbridge based council or group wanting to take meaningful action on Climate Change, please contact us for bespoke support. You can also find general information in our Resource Pack.
If you would like to comment on any aspect of the Carbon Footprint Tracker please contact us.