Post 7 – The Last For a While on Calculators
My main objectives in writing this blog are to share the things I have learnt, and continue to learn, as I attempt to live a low carbon life and to measure my progress towards that low carbon life. To achieve the latter objective, I need a defined goal and a measurement tool so I know how I am progressing. To my two readers, who have been with me from the start plus the cat that intermittently strolls past the screen which, in my desperate counting, I consider as half a reader, a third reader has been added. So for each of you, you will probably be pleased to read that in this post I am going to make this my last discussion on the issue of calculators as a measurement tool. If something emerges in the future that fulfills my criteria for the personal or domestic measurement of a low carbon life, then I will let you know.
I would like to report that I am continuing to try to improve this blog. For any readers who are interested in following hyperlinks contained in the blog, I have changed the color from purple to 
green, as of this post. This is because on my draft screen hyperlinks default to purple but publish the same color as the text so I have to remember to change the color and sometimes I miss doing so because, visually, it is all the same on the draft screen. Probably too much information, my readers, but provided anyway. This week I hope to populate my parking area page with the topics I have identified for follow-up and the dates on which I have done so. I am also going to create a new page called ‘A Distilled Product’ which, unfortunately, won’t be consumable. I plan for it to be a summative page of where my thinking and reflections are up to.
So, to commence my last post on calculators. Over the last few weeks, I have reviewed the calculator that is on the page of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) which measures our personal lifestyle in terms of how many planet earth’s are needed if we all lived the way we do; another calculator that measured our emissions and then encouraged us to buy ‘offsets’ to zero out those effects; and, finally, The Global Calculator that allows us to play about manipulating various ‘levers’ with the aim of us having a 50% chance of global warming rising only 2 degrees Celsius, the ‘tipping point’ at which it is anticipated catastrophic, irreversible changes will occur. I have repeatedly searched for other calculators or sites that indicate they have a calculator so when I came across a site called Global Footprint Network I was quite excited (yes, a bit sad that something like that should excite me but small pleasures etc, etc). I also wondered how I hadn’t found it before. I won’t bother trying to work that one out though. Anyway, it turns out that the calculator on the Global Footprint Network (GFN) site is the same as the calculator on the WWF site (see image below) and, now I find, on many other sites. I suspect some recent updating has been going on to a number of sites. This calculator was actually developed by a range of organisations including the Victorian Environment Protection Authority (EPA) which is pretty impressive since it has been taken on internationally.
This is the calculator I have been using & talking about.
During this week, I decided that I wanted to find out what I need to do to live on one planet, according to this calculator. Currently I am living on 1.4 planets. I started by putting in my real scores then I had another try adding really low scores on a number of dimensions such as electricity and gas and transport. My logic said that this would tell me where I should direct my next actions in my quest for a low carbon life. What I found was that no matter what I did, I couldn’t get my score down to one planet so I went to the GFN site to find out why and this is what I found:
Why can’t I get my Footprint score within the means of one planet?
A person’s Ecological Footprint includes both personal and societal impacts. The Footprint associated with food, mobility, and goods is easier for you to directly influence through lifestyle choices (eating less meat, driving less, etc). However a person’s Footprint also includes societal impacts or “services”, such as government assistance, roads and infrastructure, public services, and the military of the country that they live in. All citizens of the country are allocated their share of these societal impacts.
The Footprint of these societal impacts (i.e. the “services” category of your Footprint score) does not vary, and therefore in some nations it is not possible to reduce your Footprint to below one planet.
This is why, if we want to achieve sustainability, we need to focus on two things: both our own lifestyle as well as influencing our governments. Even with significant changes in individual behavior, a large portion of a personal Footprint comes from the way national infrastructure is designed, goods are produced, and government and public services operate.
In order to allow their citizens to achieve a lifestyle that fits within one planet, governments need to dramatically improve the efficiency of the built environment and invest in renewable energy and smart land-use planning.
Well, there is my answer and also the answer to the limits of the calculator. For my purposes, it is not sufficiently discriminating to allow me to measure day-to-day, week to week, month to month or, indeed, annual, improvements in my emissions. I will have to explore proxy measures (parked).
I then thought the following two questions, on the FAQ section of their site, were really good ones so I had a look at their answers which are given below.
What are some examples of what it looks like to live within one planet in a developed nation?
Achieving a lifestyle that fits within the means of our planet is difficult given today’s lifestyles and will likely require technologies and management practices that are still being developed. Many communities have taken steps to decrease their Footprint, including the BedZed community in Beddington UK, which uses building design and renewable energy power to create a zero-energy-use community. Other examples include plans for eco-cities in China and the United Arab Emirates. These communities generally focus their efforts on sustainable transport and food systems, as these are major components of a person’s personal Footprint.
Do I get credit in the calculator for positive actions I take?
The Footprint measures a person’s demand on ecosystems services: the amount of land and sea area needed to produce the goods they use and absorb their carbon dioxide emissions. Many positive actions such as planting trees and recycling do not directly reduce the amount of area needed to support each person.
There are some places in the calculator where positive personal choices can improve your Footprint score. For example, an individual who eats locally grown food reduces their overall Footprint by decreasing the amount of energy needed to transport their food. This action is captured through questions in the calculator about the origin of your purchased food.
I followed the references in the answers and it turns out that BedZed is a built precinct near London aiming at a zero carbon footprint. It is part of another movement called Bioregional which, in turn, has a commitment to ‘one planet living’ which is where I wanted to get to with my use of the calculator, so I followed that path. I ended up at a site that listed 10 principles for One Planet Living which has a nice video clip but it isn’t really about personal or household actions and also, seems to have an underlying assumption that new structures will be built that are fit for purpose, that is they are built with the aim of achieving a zero carbon life. This is a great aim but for most people, their houses are their houses and can’t be abandoned in favor of something that is purpose-built so, for most of us, we have to find ways of achieving a low carbon life in the place we are currently living in.
To conclude, the best calculator to use, to provide a general measure of the resources needed to support our lifestyles is the one I thought was produced by the WWF but in fact was developed by a consortium. It is the Global Footprint Network calculator. Once, however, you get down to about 1.5 planets, the calculator ceases to reflect any subsequent improvements you make. Both this calculator and the similarly named one The Global Calculator are useful because they tell us, by implication, the dimensions of our lifestyles that contribute to global warming and, consequently, the things we can change as we work towards a low carbon life. I will put a summary of these dimensions on my soon to be created page A Distilled Product.
To end on an immediate and practical note, the energy needed to heat our homes in a cool temperate region (from where I am publishing this blog), usually consumes a high proportion of our overall energy. For every degree less that you heat your home, emissions are reduced so, think about layers of clothing rather than just wearing one of your favorite tee-shirts. If you must wear your favorite tee-shirt, wear it under a couple of other tops. Also think about heating smaller spaces; close doors and don’t heat rooms that you are not using or use very little. For example, cool bedrooms are usually more conducive to sleep and doonas were originally designed to be on top of the bed, maximizing the amount of trapped air between the fill, not draped over the sides compressing the air pockets. Doonas look nice draped over the sides of the bed, when you are in bed, totally pull the doona onto the top of the bed and be warmer. I’m off to put on a second pair of socks. My toes are cold!