An Introduction to Lifestyle Calculators - One Planet Network

An introduction to lifestyle calculators: what can they do and measure?

How can people better understand their environmental impacts?

Daily in the media we see information onsustainable living and lifestyles. Now withCOVID19 there is likely to be increasing interestin what and how we consume to live better.

Articles cover how people can eat, move, liveand travel better and lighter and some evenoffer tools to help decision making, likefootprinting calculators.

Calculators can help people (and organizationsthat work with people) understand lifestylesustainability impacts. The assumption beingthat the information will lead to behaviourchange.

More accurate lifestyle calculators are beingcreated in response to a growing recognitionthat lifestyles decisions and consumptionpatterns are crucial for our well-being and to

keep global warming within the 1.5C limit(Institute for Global Environmental Strategies,Aalto University and D-mat ltd. 20191).

With the range of calculators being promoted,how can people best navigate their use? Tohelp clarify, the UN One Planet Network’sConsumer Information and SustainableLifestyles & Education Programmes, Institute forGlobal Environmental Strategies (IGES) and UNEnvironment Programme developed thisoverview of:

1. the context of planetary boundaries,

2. how people make (sustainability) decisions,

3. a summary of available types of calculators,their strengths and weaknesses andrepresentative examples.2

1 https://iges.or.jp/en/publication_documents/pub/technicalreport/en/6719/15_Degree_Lifestyles_MainReport.pdf2 The text was drafted by these organizations and reviewed by the Sustainable Lifestyles and Education Programme’s Advisory Committee and experts within UNEP.Photo credit: Unsplash – Carli Jeen

Introduction to planetary boundaries: what can the planet support?

Lifestyle footprint calculators can contribute tokeeping consumption within planetaryboundaries. The concept of planetaryboundaries (Rockstrom et al. 20093) presentsspaces within which humans can operate andfunction and keep the Earth within optimumconditions for life and health. Exceedingplanetary boundaries causes tipping points tooccur and runaway environmental changes(ibid.), which are harmful to humans andbiodiversity. There are nine planetary

boundaries – climate change, novel entities,stratospheric ozone depletion, atmosphericaerosol loading, ocean acidification, freshwateruse, land-system change, biogeochemical flows,biosphere integrity – and the graph belowdisplays the nine boundaries and provides acolour scale indication of humanity’s impact:showing that four of the planetary boundarieshave already been exceeded (Steffen et al.2015).

Sustainable levels of living are those whichallow the human population to remain withinplanetary boundaries. The concept ofsustainable living also includes well-being,which cover health and security and thateveryone can have their needs met - livingbetter and lighter.

Although lifestyle footprint calculators do notcover all aspects of planetary boundaries, the

metrics used correlate enough to enable them toshow how far humanity overshoots consumptionand the levels of reductions needed. Anadditional core challenge is that because of thevariables across individuals and the contextswithin which they live around the globe, there isno one sustainable lifestyle.

3 https://www.nature.com/articles/461472a4 https://science.sciencemag.org/content/347/6223/1259855

Image: Steffen et al. (2015)4

How do people make daily decisions?

Most people do not wake up with the intention toharm the environment, nor to help it. They getup, eat, get dressed, take their kids to school,go to work, care for families or study. Mostpeople live their lives making decisions to meettheir needs and aspirations.

The amount of stuff people have in many partsof the world has increased in the past half-century, while in other areas many people stillstruggle to meet basic needs. The future nowdepends on how people will choose to live, workand play and on how governments and businessdevelop an enabling environment that allowseveryone to live better within planetaryboundaries.

In general, people do not change behaviorbased on what they should do, on data andstatistics nor on negative future scenarios (fear).People act to fulfill needs and live aspirationswithin their living context, and make decisionsbased on price, accessibility, effectiveness andadditional criteria like well-being, or trendingproducts.

Sustainability may play a role for a subset ofpeople in day-to-day decision making but

currently it is a niche group. Even people whowant to live more sustainably, overwhelminglydo not have access to affordable and desirableproducts and services. People may also notreceive or know where to look for reliablesustainability information and may feel alone inacting and therefore powerless.

This underscores that beyond people, it is up togovernments and business to provide bettersustainability information, and to support anddevelop an enabling environment, includinggreen infrastructure and policies, new businessmodels, as well as support for communitygroups and education for sustainabledevelopment to make sustainable living areality5.

The figure below highlights influences and thecontexts that influence people’s decision-making. Calculators can help raise awareness ofwhat impacts lifestyle decisions as well as therelative impact of specific domains.Nevertheless, without the ability to see optionsin the calculators, it remains harder for thegeneral public to understand what actions totake and to motivate behavioural change.

5 There are many resources available such as the UN Environment & ITC (2017) Guidelines for Providing Product Sustainability Information

Image: A Framework for shaping sustainable lifestyles

Footprint Calculator Types

There are three main types of lifestyle footprintcalculators. Each type estimates human impact onthe environment using a different methodology.

The ultimate purpose of these calculators is to raiseawareness and understanding of the impact ofhuman behaviours and choices on the environmentto motivate behaviour change. The calculatorsprovide a comparable number which summarises

data of daily life choices: most commonly food/diet,housing, travel, leisure activities, and consumptionof goods such as textiles.

It is important to note that the calculators do notalways cover all areas of living (food, mobility,housing, consumer goods and tourism) and thatunderpinning data primarily comes from NorthAmerica and Europe which limits global use.

Calculators generate a figure which summarisesdata across a range of different common areas ofdaily life, most commonly food, housing, travel,leisure activities, but also consumption of goodsand textiles.

There are challenges around accuracy given thevariations possible in these areas and aroundmonitoring because calculators give snap shots andpeople would have to continually calculate to trackchanges. However, efforts are on-going to developmore transparent calculators with more holisticperspectives of an individual’s consumptionfootprint through applying full Life CycleAssessment results on environmental impacts, forexample from the European Commission’s JointResearch Centre7.

For the moment, there are few calculatorsaccessible to the public that go beyond taking asnapshot in time to accurately cover and enablemonitoring of all lifestyle areas. To improve the

information lifestyle calculators provide to people itis important that the calculators address certainprinciples such as those outlined in the Guidelinesfor providing product sustainability information(UNEP & ITC 2017)8, developed by the ConsumerInformation Programme. Aligning calculators withthe five fundamental principles of reliability,relevance, clarity, transparency and accessibilitycan lead to more credible and trusted sustainabilityinformation that can guide people in their behaviour.

In addition to the types listed above, there arecalculators that measure impacts in specific areassuch as fashion or meat consumption. The issuewith such calculators is that the limited focus on onelifestyle aspect can give a misleading sense ofsustainability and not represent the full picture. Forexample, someone who chooses to wear a lot ofsecond-hand clothes or is vegan could have highcarbon impacts through flying, purchasing gadgetsor inefficient energy use in the home.

tools which estimate theamount of raw materialsconsumed based on anindividual’s average behaviours.They account for the rawmaterials required to supporthuman behaviours includingfossil fuels, biomass, metal ores,and non-metallic minerals.

tools which provide an estimateof an individual’s direct andindirect emission ofgreenhouse gases in a yearbased on average behaviours.Carbon footprint calculatorsconvert expected greenhousegases emitted by certainactivities into a carbon dioxideequivalent figure.

tools which estimate the area of landrequired to support essential lifeservices such as biomass production,air and water filtration and carbonsequestration by plants. These toolsare not universally accepted6 becausethey combine these processes and theresult is dominated by the carbonemissions, for which carbon footprintsalready offer an internationally agreedand scientifically valid approach.

Material Footprint Ecological Footprint Carbon Footprint

6 For example, in GEO-6 there is the following caveat: “Although the Ecological Footprint has been widely embraced due to its clear depiction for policymakers of the overuse of ecosystem services (Galli 2015), it has also been criticized because it fails to track human-induced depletion of natural capital stocks. However, the methodology is actively being improved by the Global Footprint Network (Mancini et al. 2017).” P.342

c

7 https://eplca.jrc.ec.europa.eu/uploads/LCIND2-leaflet-5Sep19_PRINT_identifiers_ppt.pdf8 https://www.oneplanetnetwork.org/resource/guidelines-providing-product-sustainability-information

The Ecological Backpack measures the amount of raw materialsbeing consumed by a lifestyle. It considers five domains:consumer goods, housing, leisure (including travel), nutrition, andmobility. The calculator is user friendly, with usually giving theoption of high/medium/low or precise numbers.

The results give the user’s result, compared to the average, andto the sustainable target for 2030. No tailored advice or pathwayis offered, but users have the option to read generalised advicefor sustainable lifestyles or undertake the test again.

Material Footprint CalculatorEcological Backpack, Wuppertal Institute

Example calculators

The list below represents the types ofcalculators that can be found on-line. Thesecalculators include carbon, material andecological footprints and vary from highlydetailed assessments to more rough and readycalculations. User friendliness also varies - fromthose that require a lot of user input and

checking to ensure accuracy, to those for whichthe user can make estimates, which haveaccuracy implications. Some calculators havebrief suggestions for behaviour changes, butnone provide clear suggested pathways tosustainability.

The Global Footprint Network was established to promote theecological footprint, which measures human demand on naturethrough comparing how fast one consumes resources andgenerates waste against how fast nature can absorb the wasteand generate new resources. It measures both demand andsupply of nature in what are referred to as global hectares, withthe calculator showing how many planet earths would be neededto support a user’s lifestyle.

The calculator is user friendly but does not always providenumeric results and has questions that ask the user to comparetheir consumption to their neighbour, which is subjective andlikely to lead to inaccuracies. The result gives a personalisedpersonalised Earth Overshoot Day (the day of the year when theuser’s consumption exceeds the planet’s ability to supply), thenumber of earths needed if everyone lived like the user, andimpact by domain type and land type. The calculator gives non-personalised advice about how to reduce impacts and asks usersto sign up to pledges to reduce their impact.

Ecological Footprint CalculatorGlobal Footprint Network, Ecological Footprint Calculator

Carbon footprint calculators

The CO2 Rechner by the German Federal Protection Agency,Umweltbundesamt (UBA), calculates a person’s carbon footprintacross five domains: heating, electricity, mobility, food and othertypes of consumption. The calculation methodology is very detailedand based on an extensive research study conducted by the UBA.

The user’s results are then compared to the German averageacross the five domains. Additionally, a scenario model enables theuser to estimate future developments of the carbon footprint basedon envisaged personal changes in the short (next five years) andmedium term (ten to fifteen years). It also includes questions on theacceptance of various climate policy measures that can helpreduce the average footprint for Germany by 2050. The calculatoris currently only available in German but a translation into Englishis planned.

CO2 Rechner, Umweltbundesamt

The WWF United Kingdom footprint calculator measures a user’scarbon footprint. The calculator covers the domains: food, housing,mobility, and goods but not leisure. The questions are a mix ofrequested estimations of low, medium or high consumption oractual numbers, which may lead to inaccuracies. The calculator iswell laid out and user friendly.

The results section supplies the user’s footprint and compares itagainst the 2020 target of the United Kingdom’s and compares theuser’s footprint to the United Kingdom and world averages. Thecalculator provides general advice for reducing footprints sub-divided by domain but does not provide holistic advice for livingsustainably.

WWF Footprint Calculator

Carbon Footprint by the Nature Conservancy is a highly detailedcarbon calculator, requiring precise consumption data. However, itis relatively user friendly with a cleaner look and covers four of thefive domains (food, housing, mobility, goods but not leisure) whichmakes it easier to understand how the different areas contribute tothe whole lifestyle impact.

The results give the user’s total footprint results and a comparisonto the average footprint in the United States, which can beanalyzed by domain. The Take Action section gives advice underthree domains – transportation, housing and shopping, withdetailed suggestions under each with potential carbon reductions,cost savings, links to rebates and savings associated with options.Although this is not a comprehensive pathway calculator, it gives ameans of assessing future options.

Carbon Footprint, Nature Conservancy

Carbon footprint calculators

The Carbon Footprint Calculator by Carbon Footprint Ltd. providesa highly detailed carbon calculator. Users are required to input in alarge amount of precise and detailed consumption data. Thismeans that the result is likely to be more accurate, however thecalculator is not very user friendly and does not provide anapproximate result for a casual user. The domains of food,housing, mobility, goods, leisure are covered, but they aredescribed in the calculator as housing, flights, car, motorbike, bus,rail, and secondary.

The results give the user’s carbon footprint compared to the UnitedStates average, the European Union average, the worldwideaverage, and the worldwide average needed to combat climatechange, which is two tons. The user is invited to offset their carbonfootprint, but no information on reducing impacts is given. Althoughoffsetting can have a role in living sustainably, it should be theoption when no other means are available, not as a first choice.Placing an emphasis on offsets implies that humanity can keepemitting at current levels and simply offset, which is not a positionsupported by the science.

Carbon Footprint Calculator, Carbon Footprint Ltd.

This online Lifestyle test by SITRA is very user friendly and clear,using four domains (food, housing, mobility, and otherconsumption). However, it is aimed at a Finnish audience andhence not all questions are applicable globally.

The results give the user’s footprint, sub-divided by domain andcompared against all those who have filled out the test and againstthe average Finn. The test highlights domains where the user hashigh impact, and suggests high, medium or low impact actions thatcan lower the user’s individual footprint. These suggestions aretaken from SITRA’s 100 smart ways to live sustainably, which is anonline list that can be referred to outside of the test.

Lifestyle Test, SITRA (the Finnish Innovation Fund)

The Footprint Calculator by Henkel measures a user’s carbonfootprint. It covers the five main domains; food, housing, mobility,goods, leisure and gives the user the option to either state theyhave high, medium, or low consumption or provide the exactnumbers. The calculator is user friendly and easy to navigate.

The results give the user’s overall footprint and compare it to theglobal target (which it gives as 2 tonnes per capita) as well as theEuropean average. The calculator does not give advice on how toreduce footprints.

Footprint Calculator, Henkel

New Kids on the block

The following examples of emerging calculators exemplifyhow efforts are evolving to be more in depth across lifestyleareas and to better track and guide behaviors.

The Donut is a user-friendly mobile app that begins with a shortquestionnaire that produces a “carbon donut”, which is a personalcarbon footprint estimation across six domains (heat, electricity,transport, flights, food and consumption). The app’s main functionis to provide the user options that can affect his/her personalcarbon footprint.

As the user takes actions, the app keeps track of the shrinking“donut”. Some proposed actions can be initiated through the app,giving a platform for companies to offer their carbon-friendlysolutions. Thus, the manufacturer calls the Donut “a platform” – amarketplace that connects businesses and individuals with a jointsustainability objective.

The Donut, Spark Sustainability Ltd.

The Lighter Footprint App provides an engaging and evidence-based calculator of both a consumption-based carbon andecological footprint across four domains (food, home, mobility,consumables).

Developed in Vancouver, it is designed to work best for peopleliving in cities where an ecocity footprint analysis has beenundertaken. In those cities, users have the capacity to comparetheir footprint with their city average to enable feedback based onlocally relevant data. Outputs are compared to global per capitaclimate stability (1 tCO2e) and fair earth-share (1.5 gha) targets.

Users are given targeted suggestions on how to lighten theirfootprint, which they can add as personal goals. The app checks inwith the user periodically to track their progress. The app iscurrently undergoing testing and a second round of modificationsand will be publicly released in June 2020.

The Lighter Footprint App

New Kids on the block

Susla, Sustainable Lifestyles Accelerator Consortium

Susla is a detailed calculator that provides both carbon andmaterial footprint across five domains (housing, mobility, leisure,food and goods). After the personal footprint is calculated, theuser can compare it to average footprints of the consortium’sparticipant countries, including low-footprint countries such asIndia as well as industrialized European countries with highfootprint per capita.

The main objective of Susla is not just to calculate the footprint,but to work as a long-term companion that gives a variety ofactionable options, collects them for a personal roadmap until2030, and keeps track of the user’s lifestyle changes. First, theuser selects actions, based on SITRA’s 100 smart ways, to setthe roadmap. As a result, he/she receives a list of actions fromwhich one or several can be used in a 1-3 month experimentationphase.

After the trial period, Susla asks if it was successful, and if so,reduces the carbon footprint accordingly. The tool is fairly user-friendly but the question set is long. Susla is currently expectedto open for public in autumn 2020.

Conclusion

This article can guide interested individuals andorganizations who want to communicate onindividual lifestyle sustainability impacts.Providing available, accessible and reliableinformation is critical in enabling the transition tohealthy and sustainable 1.5°C lifestyles.Calculators can be a valuable way to empowerpeople with information to drive for moresustainable behaviour change.

Overall, lifestyle footprinting is an emerging areaand as yet there are no universal, commonlyaccepted, comprehensive calculators. Eachcalculator has strengths and limitations,underscored by a lack of local data, which limitsaccuracy.

However, research is growing, as is the interestin harnessing the power of individual decisionmaking, to better access inter-operable Life

Cycle Assessment databases that couldunderpin calculations. Enhanced harmonizationin indicators, underlying data and calculationscould improve overall reliability of scores to helpmeasurement against planetary boundaries.

In addition, since calculators will always beapproximate at best, it is important to identifyneeded complementary efforts that supportbehaviour change.

Calculators are one part of a bigger picture.Transitioning to more sustainability living andlifestyles also requires an enabling environment(supported by government and business) inwhich affordable, accessible, effective anddesirable sustainable options are the norm andpeople have the knowledge and reliableinformation to make the right choices.

Photo credit (from left to right)1. Unsplash – Markus Spiske2. Unsplash – Justin Lim3. Pexels - Cottonbro