A Carbon Footprint for Headingley

What is a carbon footprint?

The exact definition of a carbon footprint has not been agreed but it is often used as an indication of the greenhouse gasses generated by human activities. It is often measured in terms of tCO2eq (tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent) and can be used to estimate an individual’s or a community’s contribution to climate change.

1. The Impact Community Calculator

Recently we have been looking at the online Impact Community Carbon Calculator – a joint project between the Centre for Sustainable Energy and the Centre for Energy and the Environment at the University of Exeter. They recognize three categories or ‘Scopes’ for footprint investigation. Scope 1 are direct emissions from fuel combustion, Scope 2 are indirect emissions implied from the consumption of electricity and network supplied heating and cooling, and Scope 3 are indirect emissions arising as a consequence of consumption of other goods and services.

Footprints for geographical areas (such as Headingley and Hyde Park Ward) are then calculated using two different methods:

·        A Consumption Footprint: includes upstream and downstream emissions from residents’ consumption of manufactured goods, food and their own transport activity, regardless of where the emissions occur, and

·        A Territorial Footprint: includes all emissions that are generated within a defined geographical area, including those from industry, agriculture and transport activities.

A more detailed definition of territorial and consumption-based footprint is given in their methodology paper.

It is well worth looking at the website to see how the footprint for our Ward compares with those for the city and the country.

a) Headingley and Hyde Park Consumption Footprint

Here is their breakdown of how the household footprint for the Ward consists of contributions from housing, food consumption, travel and waste management:

A compariso of how the Ward average compares with district and national figures is shown below:

Note that these household footprints are averages and some neighbourhoods within the Ward may have very different footprints.

i) Housing

A major contribution to carbon emissions is housing. In the average UK home, 64% of energy is used for space heating, 17% for heating water, 16% for lighting and appliances, and 3% for cooking. As such a large proportion of household energy is used for heating, the type of heating system and how well the home retains heat, are important factors in determining a home’s emissions. How well a home retains heat depends on a number of factors, including: when and how it was built; how much insulation has been installed; how draughty the home is; the efficiency of the windows; and the behaviour of the residents.

This contribution to carbon emissions could be reduced by considering:

  • The type of housing in our community and what  heating fuels are used (oil, gas, electricity, etc.)
  • Retrofitting houses to improve how well houses retains heat and installing low carbon heating
  • Retrofitting community buildings
  • Checking the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) of the buildings in your community here: https://epc.opendatacommunities.org
  • Showcasing homes and buildings where improvements have been made
  • The local potential for renewable energy generation schemes and community owned (or jointly owned) initiatives
  • Shifting households, community buildings and businesses onto green energy tariffs, where energy is generated from renewable sources
ii) Transport

Ward residents’ car, pubic transport and air travel use are lower than the district and national levels. However, further improvements could be made by considering:

  • Existing or new community schemes to help residents shift to using public transport if possible, or encouraging more active travel options (e.g. use of Beryl bikes or subsidised bike purchase schemes)
  • The scope for influencing the provision of public transport (e.g. routes, frequency, fares, subsidies, low carbon fleets)
  • The accessibility of local service centres and facilities to residents without the need of a car
  • Addressing ‘frequent flying’ – about 10% of England’s population take more than half of all international flights
iii) Food & Diet

Apparently, changing what we eat will have a greater impact on carbon emissions than changing where our food has travelled from. However, eating locally-produced food brings other benefits such as supporting local economies, having more control over more ethical and environmentally-beneficial growing practices, and helping people to better understand where their food comes from and how it’s grown or made.

Further improvements to our footprint could be made by considering:

  • Encouraging people to reduce the amount of meat and dairy they consume (while also being sensitive to concerns about farmers’ livelihoods and people’s cultural and traditional links to meat-eating)
  • Raising awareness about food waste (in the UK this is around 22% of food purchased) and redistribution (e.g. through a ‘community fridge’)
iv) Goods & Services

On average, our Ward generates more carbon emissions per household than the district level. This could be improved by considering:

  • Any opportunities to grow the second-hand market; enable residents to upcycle and repair household items; share larger/more expensive/rarely used items, such as power tools via the Library of Things
  • Encouraging businesses to switch to green energy tariffs (where energy is generated from renewable sources), or supporting local businesses who want to reduce their emissions (e.g. with cargo bike deliveries to replace vans; energy efficiency improvements to buildings to reduce heat demand; low carbon procurement policies; local sourcing and carbon-conscious materials
v) Waste

The contribution of waste to our carbon footprint may look small, but emissions from the management of waste only represent a small fraction of the total emissions associated with every item that ends up in bins or recycling boxes. So reducing waste in the first place is critical.

b) Territorial Footprint

The annual carbon emissions (in tonnes) emitted as a result of activities taking place within Headingley and Hyde Park Ward are shown below:

Some of these figures are rough approximations as they are difficult to calculate for a particular territory. As a consequence some are calculated for the whole country and apportioned to each ward based on its population.

Here is a table of the numbers for total and per household averages:

Some suggestions for things to consider include:

  • Who are the key stakeholders you would need to engage with to address the emissions from the highest emitting sectors?
  • For example – for agricultural emissions can you engage with local land owners, or the NFU/other farmer groups to understand what is happening in your area to reduce emissions from agriculture? For industrial and commercial emissions, are there ways that businesses could be supported with reducing their emissions? For road transport what changes would be needed to improve public and active travel links?

2. Place-based Carbon Calculator

There is another online tool available – the Place-Based Carbon Calculator, developed by a CREDS researcher based in Leeds. The average footprint they obtain for people living in the Ward is shown blow and compared with the national, Local Authority and similar areas. The Ward seems to be doing quite well in this picture but even with these estimates we still have a long way to go to hit the black line – the 2032 target for us to avoid climate catastrophe.

This site also gives breakdowns of Housing, Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs), Transport and Consumption. For example, the EPC score for the Ward is shown here:

which illustrates that there is a lot to do! There are similar plots for Walls rating, Roof rating, Floors rating, Windows rating, Main Heating Type, Main Heating System Rating, Heating Controls Rating and Building Types – see below:

which all help to indicate the most effective areas to try to change for maximum effect.

If you are interested at all in joining a Headingley Carbon Footprint research/campaign project – please use the Contact page and get in touch!