Announcements
Announcements
This article presents lessons learned from the development and application of a household-level carbon footprint calculator that embeds global emissions within a local context of behavioural change.
Through an increasingly globalized supply chain, local consumption of goods and services has impacts around the world. The carbon footprint can be used to link local consumption to global greenhouse gas emissions. This study describes the development and use of REAP Petite, a household-level footprint calculator.
The authors describe how the tool integrates geodemographic information with user-inputted data; allows users to compare their footprint with others in their community; and presents them with targeted pledges to help them reduce their impact. Such tools can help individuals to see the impact their consumption has on emissions and help promote alternative behaviours.
Based on the lessons learned during tool development and through using the tool with individuals in the UK and Sweden, the authors make recommendations for the development of new footprinting tools for use in the public domain. They highlight the benefits of using bottom-up methods for calculating footprints; recommend that designers consider future-proofing their tools; discuss the trade-off between complexity and usability; and recommend that designers consider going “beyond carbon” to increase the appeal of tools to a wider audience. They also highlight the importance of providing opportunity for users to compare their footprints with those of others and of monitoring and evaluating user engagement with the tool.
Read the article (external link to article – open access)
SEI working paper / First results from the Klimatkalkylatorn dataset can help tease out many factors’ importance for household footprints, to help policymakers focus their efforts.
Press release / More than 300,000 responses to the WWF carbon footprint calculator shows an average 17% reduction in footprint.
Feature / To remain a leader in climate policy, the EU must tackle emissions produced beyond its borders, which result from the EU’s demand for imported goods.
Design and development by Soapbox.
