Your Carbon Footprint – what you can do to help tackle climate change

The 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) takes place in Glasgow between 31st October – 12th November 2021.

Delegates from across the globe will come together to accelerate action towards the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

And we all have a part to play in achieving these goals – whether that’s as individuals, communities or organisations.

“But what can we do (practically and on a day-to-day basis) to play our part?” is a question that’s often asked, simply because the task at hand seems to be so huge.

Well, there’s a FREE online tool that helps individuals to calculate their carbon footprint and then work towards reducing it by taking manageable steps with everyday things … including simple actions like not using non-recyclable wrapping paper, for example, or only boiling enough water for the drink you’re going to make (rather than a whole kettle).

The tool is called Giki Zero and works by asking a few simple and straightforward lifestyle questions (you can answer in more detail once you get the hang of things and that gives a more detailed ‘score’). Answering these questions gives you an initial estimate of your carbon footprint that you can track on your Progress Page. This is the “go to” page for all your headline personalised information where you can see how your carbon footprint shapes up and what your Giki score is. Every month you’ll see a new challenge with selected steps at the top. We’ve even built you a personalised Climate Clock so you can see how long we’ve got left until the global carbon budget runs out!

Why not try it out and then encourage friends, family, colleagues and contacts/clients to sign up too … maybe you could have a ‘league table’ of people’s Giki scores?

To show you how straightforward it is, I’ve signed up today and my score started at 432 … which isn’t great, to be honest. A score of 500 is really the first ‘target’ and the larger the score the better you’re doing! Anyway, by taking a few simple steps, I’ve already increased my score to 439. It might not seem like much, but if everyone were to do the same then we’d reach our climate goals all the more quickly – there is very definitely ‘strength in numbers’ where climate change action is concerned.