Barratt Eco Calculator

About the Calculator

Methodology

Feedback from colleagues has indicated that there is an ongoing interest in sustainability and questions about what practical actions we can take to make a difference. In response to this, the corporate sustainability team have developed what we hope will be a fun yet educational calculator that allows colleagues to assess their personal carbon and ecological footprint. Our aim is to inspire and educate colleagues about sustainability, whilst giving simple, practical ideas to reduce your footprint.

To be fully transparent, it is important to state that if you were to use one of the publically available footprint calculators, you would likely get slightly different results from each calculator you use. With the Barratt Eco Calculator, we have worked with internal colleagues and external experts to develop questions that focus on areas that have the most impact on your personal footprint. We have improved the methodology where possible to ask questions that help to refine the results as much as possible.

A great way to track improvements is to use the calculator each time you make changes!

Please find a summarised methodology below. The full version can be downloaded here which includes further details and all data sources.

Food

1. Please select from the below which best describes your meals in a typical week (assuming 3 meals per day)
   For this question, we have used data from Oxford University. To calculate the emission, we have used the Oxford University figures along with NHS recommended daily protein intake. We have grouped the options into five meal types (vegan, vegetarian, white meat and red meat) to allow us to calculate the environmental impact of an individual’s meal choices.
2. What type of food do you usually eat?
   Using a study undertaken by global sustainability consultancy Anthesis for Tesco, we have calculated the amount of carbon that is attributable to packaging and transport of food. This question considers the whole supply chain impact of food including: transport; packaging; processing and retail. Farming practices have not been considered for this question due to the significant complexity involved but this this something we hope to bring into the next phase of the calculator.

Travel

3. What kind of vehicle do you travel in most frequently?
   For this question, we have used approved UK Government data to obtain the corresponding carbon emissions for each vehicle type. We chose to group the vehicle bands in this way to represent the most commonly used vehicle types.
4. How far do you drive in a typical week?
   To calculate this question, we have annualised the response and used the response from Question 3 (vehicle type) to calculate the associated carbon emissions.
5. How far do you travel by public transport in a typical week?
   For this question, we have used approved UK Government data to obtain the average carbon emission value for the average of bus and train travel. We have annualised the response given to the question to calculate the yearly emissions.
6. How many hours did you spend on an aeroplane in the last year?
   For this question, we have used approved UK Government data to obtain the carbon emissions value for air travel. The approach taken is to calculate the impact of each hour of air travel based on average air speeds, as this gives a better picture of the footprint.

Home

7. How big is your household?
   The response to this question is used as a denominator in all the home energy calculations. For example, if the responder lives with one other person then they are only responsible for half the energy use. Age is therefore not a factor, though of course it is recognised that dependents will have footprints similar to that of the decision making adult in their household.
8. On average, how much gas do you use each month?
   For this question, we have used approved UK Government data on consumption (kWh) and costs for gas use for a representative range of housetypes.
9. On average, how much heating oil (kerosene, or burning oil) do you use in a year?
   For this question, we have used approved UK Government data on consumption (litres) and costs for oil use.
10. On average, how much electricity do you use each month?
    For this question, we have used approved UK Government data on consumption (kWh) and costs for electricity use for a representative range of housetypes.
11. What type of electricity do you buy?
    This question uses multipliers which are applied to the result of Question 10 for how much electricity the respondent uses each year.

Consumption

12. How much do you spend each month on clothing and footwear? (Including jewellery and bags)
    The same method is used for calculating Questions 12-15. The amount of items we buy has a large impact on the environment. All products are dependent on materials, production and transport. The simplest way to estimate this is through the value spent per category. Based on a previous study undertaken by global sustainability consultancy Anthesis, we calculated this question using four expenditure categories (clothing, personal care, household and leisure) using economic input-output analysis. We chose these categories to represent the most common areas of purchased goods.
13. How much do you spend each month on household goods? (Including furnishings, appliances, DIY and homeware)
    See Q12
14. How much do you typically spend each month on communications and personal care? (including phone, internet, cosmetics, beauty treatments and toiletries)
    See Q12
15. How much do you typically spend each month on recreation, leisure and cultural activities? (including hobbies, books and magazines, sporting and cultural events - but exclude hotels, holidays, food and eating out)
    See Q12
16. What percentage of reused/recycled goods do you try purchase?
    To calculate this question we applied a series of multipliers to the results of the clothing and household goods consumption questions only. This is because reused and recycled alternatives for communications, personal care and leisure spending are not readily available.
17. Do you recycle your household waste?
    Similar to the previous question, we applied a series of multipliers to the results of the clothing and household goods consumption questions only. This is because reused and recycled alternatives for communications, personal care and leisure spending are not readily available.
18. What do you do to support wildlife in your garden? (select all that apply)
    It is important to note that while this question does not influence the carbon footprint, it does impact the ecological footprint which means the amount of land needed if everyone had the same footprint as you currently do. Given the importance of biodiversity to Barratt, we wanted to prompt our colleagues to take action in their gardens, while linking to the RSPB.

Total results

The final results are the total of all the results for home, travel, food, goods and services. A fixed ‘public services’ factor has also been added to reflect the important point that there are lots of indirect impacts on your footprint that are out of your immediate control. Government expenditure on roads and construction, education, defence, health, and other expenses involved in running the country all impact your own footprint and our joint impact on the planet.

We have also calculated the ecological footprint for each question. The ecological footprint is derived directly from the tCO2e figure using a tCO2 to the global hectare multiplier sourced from the National Footprint Accounts 2019. The resulting global hectare value is uplifted by the relevant uplift factor to account for the non-carbon footprint element of the ecological footprint which reflects the wider impact of infrastructure.

Further details can be found in the full methodology here.