How Big is your Climate Impact?

Our lifestyle obviously affects the environment. But how much difference does it really make if you heat the house with a heat pump compared to, for example, oil? And how much can you cut your carbon dioxide emissions in total if you think about the environment, both large and small? We take a closer look at this in this blog.

What affects our emissions?

There are several factors that affect carbon dioxide emissions from our households. Some of it is the electricity we use for electronic equipment at home, such as lighting. Something that has a big impact is what type of heating is used. Other choices we make – such as how many cars we drive and our consumption habits are also crucial.

To get a concrete measure of what the effects of different choices will be, we use two example families – one environmentally conscious and one who does not think so much at all about the impact of their lifestyle. In our example, we have assumed that the family has four people in the household.

The environmentally conscious family.’

Here, the heating is done with a heat pump, the diet is mostly vegetarian and you often buy second hand and recycle all your waste. In addition, the family has no car but is able to use public transportation.

The not so environmentally conscious family.

Here it is still the old oil boiler that manages the heating in the house. It is often meat on the plate and you rather buy new than old, while the only things that are recycled are magazines, cartons and glasses. The family has two cars – a large diesel car and a small petrol car.

The difference corresponds to 7.5 globes.

When looking at the figures, it is interesting to note that even the environmentally conscious family lives above the earth’s assets. They had required 2.4 globe to make their lifestyle sustainable. Comparatively, the family who does not think about the environment lives as if there were 9.9 orbs – a difference of 7.5 orbs. The difference in emissions from the home is also, as we see, significant. 2.98 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year compared to 0.75. Here, the renewable energy source rock heat has a major impact compared to burning fossil fuel with the oil boiler.