In the spirit of reducing our carbon footprint, Veganuary challenges us to introduce vegan meals into our diets, providing many delicious recipes as an encouragement to do so.  Even if your first step is to download the free cookbook, that's a start!

Have you determined your carbon footprint? There are a range of online carbon footprint calculators. This one seems to take in quite a lot of data so it should be fairly accurate https://www.carbonfootprint.com/calculator.aspx.

I have put this on the BSFG website, https://www.bsfg.org.au/energy-overview.html.

I found this carbon footprint calculator at Australian Ethical https://www.australianethical.com.au/carbon-footprint-calculator/. My footprint is 9.96 Tonnes CO2e per year which is about what I get using other calculators.

However the most interesting thing about this calculator is that it allows the inclusion of financial investments which have a very large effect on my carbon footprint. Assuming I had $200,000 in mainstream investments my footprint increases to 37.67 tonnes of CO2 emissions (CO2e) and accounts for around 26.7 tonnes CO2e or 70.9% of my carbon footprint. If I invest in low carbon funds I would reduce my overall annual carbon footprint by approximately 43% to around 21.47 tonnes CO2e. Is investment environmentally sustainable?

Carbon Footprint Calculators generally give a report showing total annual carbon emissions, but may also include a breakdown on where emissions are coming from such as transport, including air travel, housing, food and consumption expenditure, highlighting areas where reductions can be made.

Peter Maddock

This article appeared initially in the September 2019 edition of the BSFG Newsletter.