Week 2: Start Tracking Your Carbon

What is a carbon footprint anyway? It’s how much carbon is released into the atmosphere by producing and delivering the things each of us consumes and uses. Everyone’s carbon footprint is different, and each of us impacts our own footprint by what we choose to consume and purchase. This short video explains it:

Challenge 2:

Download the North -Your Climate Journey app (available for both android and apple) and get familiar with it so you can track your carbon starting on May 1st. This app is being improved all the time, so as our year progresses, you’ll have more options. Track your carbon footprint for a week (Good), a month (Better), a year (Best).

It’s simple to use, but here are some tips to help you begin.

Tips:

• Enter your household electricity by month. Use the total kWh from the most current month’s bill. Since it’s likely your April bill will not have arrived by May 1st, use your March bill. You can go back and update the entry when the next actual bill arrives.
• If natural gas cannot be entered as an item, you can enter it as heat  as a gas boiler. Just like your electricity bill, enter the most recent month’s bill and update it when the new bill arrives.
• Enter things you do regularly as recurring events to save time. For example, your daily commute by car can be entered to recur 5 days a week. Meals can also be put in as recurring events.
• Enter meals by meal type rather than ingredient.
• Purchases may not show up when you search for an item, but you can enter them under spending in the closest category. Make sure to change the currency (bottom right) before entering the amount you spent.

The app shows you in real time how each choice increases your carbon footprint, by illustrating carbon as “bubbles” that accumulate. With every entry, you’ll get a clearer picture on what your footprint looks like. Bigger carbon emitters are depicted as bigger bubbles. Small ones as smaller bubbles. So, you can really “see” what impact your choices are having. The more you use it, the more intuitive it becomes.

The results can be quite eye-opening, so be curious, and see where the North - your climate journey app takes you! Happy tracking!