How exactly do your daily actions impact the environment? What if everyone lived like you? Find out by playing with one of the dozens of eco-calculators available for free online! The most popular calculators determine your environmental footprint, which is a measure of how much land area it takes to support your lifestyle. According to the Global Footprint Network, “footprint accounts work like bank statements, documenting whether we are living within our ecological budget or consuming nature’s resources faster than the planet can renew them.”1 Let’s take a look at some of these eco-calculators available on the web!
1) The Global Footprint Network’s calculator is both fun and customizable. Answer as few as 16 general questions—about food, energy use, recycling habits, housing type, transportation—or give a couple dozen detailed responses to get a more accurate footprint. A simple animation follows each question. I (or an animated version of myself) begin the exercise in a vacant lot. After I reveal my eating habits, a veggie shop plops onto my lot. I explain my living situation, and down comes a townhouse. In this way, the little game enables users to see their world build up around them… Fun! The calculator said that, if everyone lived like me, we’d need 3.7 earths to provide enough resources.
2) Curiously, another footprint calculator, this one created by the Center for Sustainable Economy, says that my lifestyle would require 2.59 earths. This calculator, which reads like a bubble test, asks 22 detailed questions. For example: “Please enter the number of miles you travel per year for each mode of transportation” (cars, bus, rail, air).
3) According to American Pubic Media’s footprint calculator, my lifestyle requires only 1.8 earths. Sure, that’s still a whole lot more than the one earth that we have, but it’s also a whole lot less than 3.7. These differing results remind us that these calculators are neither comprehensive nor extremely accurate. But they do put your actions and choices into a global perspective, and this calculator also allows you to compare your scores to other players and to share your responses with journalists.
4) Some calculators focus on the footprint of just one aspect of your life. The Water Footprint Calculator estimates your water consumption for the entire year. The largest use of household water in the United States results from flushing the toilet, and after that taking showers and baths. The average American uses 80 to 100 gallons of water per day (about a third of a cubic meter).2 How do you compare? This calculator has no frills—just fill out a page of questions, click submit, and get an answer in cubic meters. Unfortunately, it does not compare your result with other people or countries. Some questions are easy, such as “how many baths do you take each week,” while other questions are impossible to estimate without some serious effort, such as “how many kilograms of vegetables do you eat per week?”
5) The EPA Household Emission’s Calculator also reads like a tax form and requires some data collection. Before you begin, gather your recent electric, gas, and/or oil bills. Seriously, do it, because this calculator is well worth the effort. Not only does it estimate your current emissions, but it also encourages you to commit to actions that would reduce your emissions and then estimates your savings as a result of these actions. If I stick to all the actions I selected, I’ll save $488 per year and emit only 9,879 pounds of carbon dioxide per household member per year. Do you contribute less than the 20,750 pounds that the average American emits annually? Take the test to find out!
6) Flight emissions calculators are easy to come across because many carbon offset companies and airlines feature them on their websites. Just punch in where you’re coming from and where you’re going, and out comes a number. Try out the calculators at co2balance, Carbon Neutral, or Climate Care. Or check out Finnair’s calculator, which limits the cities you can choose from to those that Finnair operates in and is also much more accurate than other calculators because it uses Finnair’s actual emissions numbers for its fleet. Play with these calculators and you’ll find out that carbon offsets for flights are surprisingly cheap. You can offset a flight from New York to San Francisco for about $10!
7) Once you’ve calculated your emissions, find out what it all means with the EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Equivalences Calculator. The 20,720 pounds of carbon dioxide that the average American emits annually is equal to the carbon sequestered each year by two acres of pine or fir forests. Now we can see why journalists are always comparing emissions to numbers of trees or cars or whatever else. It’s easier to imagine an acre of forest than a pound of gas.
8) The Zero Footprint Youth Calculator is for someone important that all of the above calculators have overlooked—kids! Kids might not be able to answer how many kilograms of vegetables they eat per week (don’t worry, kids, I can’t either), but they can think about how much soda they drink, or how they get to school (yes, you can answer “ride a rickshaw” or “go by donkey”). Each question is immediately followed by a sample action you can take. For example, if your parents drive around in a car, ask them to minimize use of the air conditioner. The quiz does contain a great deal of questions, 29 to be exact, and some children might not have the patience for it. The website also provides worldwide results, a teacher’s guide, and a discussion forum. After the kids finish the quiz, encourage them to explore the rest of The Greens site, which is all about kids and taking care of the planet.
TIP: Don’t try to fill out all of the quizzes all at once. I did them one after another, and it made my head spin. Once you’re done, don’t let the results discourage you, they are just games after all! Instead, take a break. Turn off the computer screen, take a stroll outdoors, and commit to be mindful of the environment in all of your daily actions.
