Even if you compost obsessively, eat organic only, and never drive, just one holiday a year can undo much of that hard eco-living. Iva Pocock assesses which areas of your life have the greatest environmental impact, and shows how to calculate your personal 'ecological footprint'
You've heard about saving the planet, and want to do your bit for your children's children, but how can you tell whether your attempts to reduce rubbish, insulate the house and take the odd bus really make a difference?
One way to assess the impact your lifestyle has on the planet is to work out your "ecological footprint". It's essentially an accounting process, but instead of punching in your income, mortgage repayments and health insurance contributions, you tot up what you eat, how far you travel, how much waste you create, and what energy you use to heat your home.
The eco-accounting package then works out how much productive land is needed to sustain your lifestyle, factoring in the environmental cost of shared infrastructure such as the nation's roads and type of electricity plants. Because we live in a globalised economy, this land is scattered all over the planet, so your eco-footprint is defined in terms of global hectares per capita, per year.
The 2002 Living Planet Report by World Wildlife Fund for Nature estimates there are 1.8 global hectares available per person, if we all have an equal share. Currently we in Ireland use three times this amount per person. If everyone in the world lived like we do, we'd need three planets. US citizens live as if there were five planets, most Africans live on a fraction of their share.
Another tool for monitoring your eco-impact is carbon accounting - working out how many greenhouse gases your lifestyle releases into the atmosphere. As energy analysts predict global oil reserves are close to peaking, some campaigners say it's time to ration personal carbon emissions. In Ireland, on average, we're each responsible for 11 tonnes of greenhouse gases.
We use these systems to help you weigh up the areas where you're having a negative impact, where you're having a positive influence, and how you can measure and change your own "ecoprofile".
It can be a complicated business. If you live in a super-energy-efficient house powered by windgenerated electricity, cycle everywhere, recycle like mad and take two holidays a year - one to the US, one to South Africa - your eco-footprint is the same as someone who lives in a moderately energy-efficient home with regular coal/gas-derived electricity, drives everywhere, recycles everything and holidays close to home. The choice is yours.
Your waste
Impact: 38 per cent of eco-footprint
Our consumption and waste of things, from furniture to gadgets, buildings and juice cartons, constitutes 38 per cent of the average European footprint - two global hectares per person. This includes all the materials and energy indirectly associated with the products we use: the mining of metals used in our computers, offices and saucepans; the chemicals used to dye carpets and make furniture; the fossil fuel used to make plastic goods.
Figures from 2001 from the National Race Against Waste show that on average each Irish householder produces 375kg of waste per year, a 14 per cent increase since 1998. Just over 13 per cent of this is recycled - the rest goes to landfill.
Reduce your impact ...
... and keep your lifestyle
The first step is refusing things, says Mike Holden, the Cork region co-ordinator of Global Action Plan. "Then reduce, reuse and recycle." Make a compost heap and reduce your household waste. Pass things on to charity shops. Take hazardous waste such as old paint, household cleaners, light bulbs, medicines, car and household batteries and used car oil to the proper disposal places. Don't burn waste in your backyard.
... but make a sacrifice
Choose products which can be easily repaired or recycled. Spend extra time and euros on choosing goods made from natural materials: carpets, furniture etc.
... by seeking broader change
Just four per cent of Irish waste is domestic, so get your employers to set up a waste reduction system appropriate to their industry.
Your food
Impact: 31 pre cent of eco-footprint
Getting your head around the environmental impact of daily nutrition takes a bit of lateral thinking. How can choosing one steak or bag of spuds over the other affect your eco-footprint? The answer lies in the water, land and energy used in farming, food miles (the distance an item on your plate has travelled before you tuck into it) and how processed your meal is.
About a quarter of the energy use associated with food is in the farming. Growing organic vegetables and grains is about half as energy-intensive as non-organic equivalents. However, flying organic apples from New Zealand releases the same amount of greenhouse gas emissions as flying conventional apples.
The distances and emissions associated with imported food can be staggering: for every calorie of carrot, flown in from South Africa, we use 66 calories of fuel. In Eating Oil: Food in a Changing Climate, a UK publication, there's an example of a "traditional" Sunday lunch made of imported goods which have cumulatively travelled 79,000 km, releasing 37.8kg of carbon dioxide along the way.
Processed food is more environmentally costly than unprocessed, as energy is used in cooking and packaging.
Reduce your impact ...
... and keep your lifestyle
Follow a "low-carbon" diet. When you have a choice between Irish and foreign-grown fruit and vegetables, choose the local produce. Cut down on processed and packaged food. By eating local, organic and unprocessed food you can reduce your food carbon emissions by 76 per cent, according to the UK's East Anglia Food Link. Avoid packaging: buy loose veggies, or choose products in glass or paper.
... but make a sacrifice
You could give up meat, or at least cut down. Of the average Irish food footprint of 1.63 global hectares per person, 1.48 are attributable to meat.
... by seeking broader change
Lobby for nutritional guidelines which factor in associated environmental emissions.
Your home
Impact: 20 per cent of eco-footprint
The vast majority of Irish households rely on imported fossil fuels whether directly for boilers, or through using electricity generated from burning coal or gas. An average Irish household, using oil-fired central heating and an immersion for hot water releases 13 tonnes of greenhouse gases per annum. A quarter of energy-related greenhouse gases come from residential energy use.
Energy savings can be made, however, by making simple changes to your home. Sustainable Energy Ireland (SEI, www.sei.ie) has a detailed guide to how you can calculate your home energy use and a list of detailed saving suggestions, with costs and pay-back times included. Remember, pay-back times will reduce as fuel and electricity prices go up.
Substantial benefits to both your pocket and the planet are possible if you fit your home with a solar hot water panel and a wood pellet stove.
Reduce your impact ...
... and keep your lifestyle
Turn down your thermostat by two degrees, and cut as much as 10 per cent off your heating bill. Switch off your TV, video, DVD or stereo to stop the extra electricity used by being on standby. If just 10 households switched off their TV sets properly, one tonne of CO2 would be saved, says the SEI. Turn rads off in unused rooms, and lower them in hallways. Keep the lights off too. Buy appliances - washers, driers, fridges - with an A energy consumption rating. Put on full washes only.
... but make a sacrifice
Insulate your attic and save 20 per cent of your fuel bill.
A family can reduce their household's greenhouse gas emissions - from 13 to three tonnes - by installing a solar hot water panel, a wood pellet stove, and switching to a green electricity provider. A solar thermal panel for supplying hot water to an average family of four to six people costs €4,000-€6,000 including VAT. "At current energy prices, this will pay for itself in eight to 10 years," says Gerry Cunnane of Wind, Water, Solar Energy Systems. And there have been predictions that electricity prices will rise by up to 36 per cent this autumn.
Factor in the energy efficiency of any home you buy - under EU legislation the sale of all houses, old and new, will soon require an energy certificate. A low-impact house may well be worth more in the future.
... by seeking broader change
Badger your public representative about grants for renewable energy systems, and complain about the lack of a national energy policy while you're at it.
Transport
Impact: 11 per cent of eco-footprint
A quarter of our energy-related greenhouse gases are from transport. The high impact is mainly due to the private car.
A 2004 study by DIT student Brenda Ryan showed that the transport footprint for the Co Limerick village of Doon, where over 90 per cent of inhabitants travel by car, is 0.88 global hectares per person. "The footprint of the private car is high, as it includes all the elements of the transport footprint - the direct energy used, embodied energy in its manufacture and maintenance, and use of road space, but with low occupancy rates," writes Ryan.
Over 1,000km, a medium-sized petrol car produces four times more greenhouse gases per person than a bus. The same car is seven times more energy intensive than a train. A big diesel car is slightly less polluting.
A cyclist can travel 2,560km using the same amount of energy contained in a gallon of petrol.
Reduce your impact ...
... and keep your lifestyle
Check public transport options for your commute. Consider whether you really need to drive the kids to school or to the shop for a pint of milk. A quarter of all car journeys are shorter than two miles.
Make sure your car is well-serviced and that the tyres are pumped. Drive carefully. Aggressive driving can be more than 30 per cent more polluting, according to Sustainable Energy Ireland. Turn off your engine if sitting in a jam for more than 30 seconds. Share your car.
... but make a sacrifice
Buy a low-emission hybrid car, such as a Honda Insight or a Toyota Prius, which run on petrol and batteries.
Holidays
Impact: Depends on flights taken
As flying is the most environmentally expensive form of travel, releasing almost seven times more carbon dioxide per person than taking a train and some three times more than driving, you can undo a lot of eco-living when you head off for a two-week break aboard a plane. One trans-Atlantic flight is equivalent to driving a car average mileage for a year and produces 1.3 tonnes of carbon dioxide per passenger.
Short-haul flights have an even greater environmental impact per mile - larger than rail transport over the same point-to-point journey, says the UK's Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution. But with flights so cheap, the temptation to gas-guzzle off on your hols is high.
Reduce your impact...
... and keep your lifestyle
Consider carbon-auditing your holidays and allowing yourself only a certain tonnage of emissions per trip. If you do fly, calculate how much CO2 you have used, and plant some trees to reabsorb them. www.futureforests.com will help you.
... but make a sacrifice
Kiss goodbye to overseas holidays, unless you can get there by sea, road or rail.