Green Guide for a Lower Environmental Footprint Checklist

Run our Green Guide Green Guide for a Lower Environmental Footprint Checklist to obtain an approximation of your environmental footprint, to identify how you can reduce your footprint and live more sustainably.

Introduction:

Record checklist details

Your carbon footprint calculator:

Evaluate your carbon footprint from your diet

Set targets to improve your environmental footprint diet score

Evaluate your carbon footprint from travel

Set targets to improve your environmental footprint travel score

Evaluate your carbon footprint from housing

Set targets to improve your environmental footprint house score

Evaluate the carbon footprint of your consumer habits

Set targets to improve your consumer habits footprint score

Your numerical results:

View your the numerical results for your carbon footprint

Your carbon footprint results:

Acknowledge your carbon footprint is in Band 1 (very low impact)

Acknowledge your carbon footprint is in Band 2 (low impact)

Acknowledge your carbon footprint is in Band 3 (high impact)

Acknowledge your carbon footprint is in Band 3 (excessively high, average, or above)

Resources:

Related checklists:

Introduction:

"I wish the world was twice as big - and half of it was still unexplored. It's surely our responsibility to do everything within our power to create a planet that provides a home not just for us, but for all life on Earth" - Sir David Attenborough

As the consequences of our unsustainable activities come knocking, the consciousness of many seeks to find solutions, to mitigate the impacts of our current environmental crisis.

We at Process Street want to do our bit, whilst also making things easier for you to do your bit. Which is why we have put together this Green Guide.

Our Green Guide for a Lower Environmental Footprint Checklist has been produced using WWF's Carbon Footprint calculator. By using this checklist, you're taking your first step towards a more sustainable life.

It must be noted that the values given in this checklist are a very rough estimation of your environmental footprint, and serve mainly to provide perspective on environmentally damaging activities you can easily reduce/stop.

How to use this checklist

At the beginning of this checklist, you will be presented with a set of specialized questions given as form fields. You are required to populate each form field with your data.

This checklist will calculate your carbon footprint by asking you a series of questions. You are asked to select your answer using our multiple-choice form fields. Each response is assigned a point value, which is determined by how sustainable that behavior is. The higher the point value, the more sustainable the behavior.

Your environmental footprint is assessed based on 4 aspects:

Your diet
Your traveling behavior
Your housing
Your consumer habits

You're asked to total your points from each section to calculate your environmental footprint as a percentage average. This will categorize you as either very low impact, low impact, high impact, or excessively high impact.

You are then given tips for how to reduce your carbon footprint and encouraged to set targets based on these tips. The idea is that, with the achievement of these targets, you adjust your lifestyle to live more sustainably.

In this template, you will come across the following Process Street features:

Stop tasks - To ensure task order.
Conditional logic - To adjust the template so it is adapted to your needs.
Role assignment - To delegate tasks within your team ensuring your supervisors are appropriately assigned to the review tasks.

Record checklist details

In this Green Guide for a Lower Environmental Footprint Checklist, you will be presented with the following form fields for which you are required to populate with your specific data. More information for each form field is provided via linkage to our help pages:

Let's start by recording your information, such as your email, your name, your job title, and company name.

This is a stop task, meaning you cannot progress in this template until the required form fields are populated.

Your name

Job title

Company name

Start date

Your carbon footprint calculator:

Evaluate your carbon footprint from your diet

1) How best would you describe your diet?

Your diet

2) In a week, how much do you spend on food restaurants, canteens, and takeaways?

Food restaurants, canteens, and takeaways

Of the food you buy, how much is wasted and thrown away?

Food thrown away

How often do you buy locally produced food that is not imported into the USA?

Purchases of local food

Add up your points and detail the total using the short-text form field below.

Diet: Total points out of 14

Set targets to improve your environmental footprint diet score

We have detailed top tips below to help you work to improve your environmental footprint associated with your diet.

Diet

Eat-in season:

Everything we consume is taken from our planet. Our lives are dependent on the planet and its resources. This does mean that every one of our actions has an environmental cost associated. Even the food you buy. Try to buy products that have been sustainably sourced, but look out for greenwash!

Buying seasonally produced food supports your local agricultural economy, but also helps the environment by cutting down on packaging, transport, and high-intensity farming processes needed for out of season foods.

This tip will also benefit your wallet.

Our tips:

We suggest using a food calendar for your local areas, to tell you what foods are in season and what foods are out of season
We also suggest checking out the delivery of farm foods in your local area

Eat less meat and dairy:

The production of meat and dairy products is one of the major causes of greenhouse gas emissions. Global meat consumption needs to be reduced by 50% if we are to meet our 2050 targets. Livestock takes up nearly 80% of the global agricultural land, yet produces less than 20% of the world's supply of calories. Natural ecosystems are stripped to provide us with this land. Once more, livestock farming is accountable for 20-50% of greenhouse gas emissions.

Our tips:

If cutting meat and dairy out completely seems a little daunting to you, why not limit the amount of meat and dairy you eat to say only twice a week.

Add some variety

Constant farming of the same crop types drains nutrients from the soil. That is, the way food is farmed is hugely important for how sustainable that food type is. Having a colorful pallet ensures more nutrients, natural flavors, and a more exciting meal! What's there to lose?

Use the short-text form fields to set yourself targets to improve the environmental footprint associated with your diet.

Diet: Target 1

Diet: Target 2

Diet: Target 3

Evaluate your carbon footprint from travel

What kind of car do you travel in most often as a driver or as a passenger?

The primary vehical used for travel

Which of these best describes the vehicle you use the most?

Vehicle type

How many hours a week do you spend in your car or on your motorbike for personal use including commuting?

Hour spent commuting

How many hours a week do you spend on the train for personal use including commuting?

Your train travel record

How many hours a week do you spend on the bus for personal use including commuting?

Your bus travel record

In the last year, how many return flights have your made in the following regions?

Your flight travel record

What % of your flights do you offset?

Flight offset record

Add up your points and detail the total using the short-text form field below.

Travel: Total points out of 33

Set targets to improve your environmental footprint travel score

Source: BEIS/Defra Greenhouse Gas Conversion Factors 2019 (pdf embedded below for your consideration)

We have detailed top tips below to help you work to improve your environmental footprint associated with your travel.

Travel

Cycle:

Cycling creates no emissions, relies on limited resources and it keeps you fit and healthy both physically and mentally. Once more, by cycling, you will save money while also helping to save the environment.

Our tips:

Buy a bike, its fun!

Use public transport

Okay so the weather is pants or your commute is too long. Fear not, as we have another solution for you - use public transport. It is a great alternative to driving, and results in fewer cars on the road and therefore less carbon dioxide is produced.

Our tips:

Use the time to listen to your favorite podcast, read your favorite book, or strike up a conversation with someone new.

Drive smarter

Okay, so we cannot avoid using our car in some instances. But if you do have to use your car, why not drive smarter for the environment? Smarter driving can limit some of the emissions from car usage. Here are smart-driving tips you should consider:

Our tips:

Removing excess weight from the vehicle - this will also improve fuel efficiency. ️
Have the correct air pressure in your tyres to give better petrol mileage, better handling of the car, cheaper maintenance costs, and a smaller environmental impact.
Slowing your travel speed by 10km/h could improve your car's fuel consumption by 25%. - remember the tortoise won the race!

Reduce and offset your airtime:

Air travel contributes 1 gigaton of carbon dioxide to the Earth's atmosphere. One return flight from London to Sydney emits about 5 tonnes of carbon dioxide - that's about half the average person's annual carbon footprint. With that said, it is possible to cut your carbon footprint by 10-20% by skipping just 1 flight a year.

What's worrying, however, is that air travel is likely to grow over the next 20 years. The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) published their Aerospace Forecasts for the next 2 decades. Airtravel passengers are expected to increase from 880.5m in 2018, to 1.3 billion by 2039, an average annual increase of 1.9%.

Our tips:

Reduce the need to travel. If you are traveling for business, can you achieve what is needed by working remotely? Consider using other forms of transports, such as train travel, or coach where possible.
If flying is your only option, then donate to carbon offsetting schemes. The idea is that emissions released from your flight are reduced somewhere else to help slow the rise of global carbon dioxide emissions.
Even if you're not flying, look to support sustainable projects and research. ‍

Use the short-text form fields to set yourself targets to improve the environmental footprint associated with your diet.

Travel: Target 1

Travel: Target 2

Travel: Target 3

Evaluate your carbon footprint from housing

What kind of house do you live in?

House type

How many bedrooms does your house have?

Number of house bedrooms

How many people (aged 17 or over) live in your home?

Number of people in your home

How do you usually heat your home?

Home heating

Is your electricity on a green tariff?

Green tariff

Do you regulary turn off your lights?

Turn off lights?

How warm do you keep your home in the winter?

Home temperature

Which of these home energy efficiency improvements are installed in your home?

Energy efficiency improvements installed

1

Energy-saving light bulbs (1 point)
2

Loft insulation (1 point)
3

The cavity or solid wall insulation (1 point)
4

Double glazing (1 point)
5

Solar panels (1 point)
6

Condensing boiler (1 point)
7

Low flow fittings to tops and showers (1 point)
8

Solar water heater (1 point)

Housing: Total points out of 30

Set targets to improve your environmental footprint house score

We have detailed top tips below to help you work to improve your environmental footprint associated with your travel.

Housing

Switch energy provider:

Changing your energy provider is an excellent way to influence your environmental impact on a national scale. Renewable energy companies are driving forward this change, providing cheap and sustainable energy. Choose a renewable energy provider to limit your footprint, and support the future of sustainable, renewable energy.

Our tips

There are lots of green energy suppliers out there for you to choose from, so do some digging to find one that is right for you. We have listed some popular green energy suppliers below for your consideration: ️

Make the switch:

Use energy-efficient light bulbs - they last 25x longer than traditional bulbs and use 80% less power in emitting the same amount of light. They are your best option when accounting for product cost, energy cost, and efficiency (you won't need to change them nearly as much as traditional bulbs).

Embrace new technology:

It is becoming easier to monitor your energy usage, which can be done by the touch of a button these days. Why power and heat rooms that no one is in? Utilize SMART technology to mitigate the environmental impact of your home.

Our tips

At Process Street we love technology. Why not check out our Go Lean and Go Green: Green Technology to Future Proof Your Business post for quick tips on how you can work to become more sustainable in your business. From programmable thermostats to green web hosting. We can use technology to propel us into a greener future. ‍

Use the short-text form fields to set yourself targets to improve the environmental footprint associated with your housing arrangement.

Housing: Target 1

Housing: Target 2

Housing: Target 3

Evaluate the carbon footprint of your consumer habits

In the last 12 months, have you bought any of these household items?

Items bought

1

TV, laptop, PC (-2 points)
2

Large item of furniture (-3 points)
3

Washing machine, dishwater, tumble dryer, or fridge freezer (-4 points)
4

Mobile phone or tablet (-1 point)

In a typical month, how much do you spend on clothes and footwear?

Money spent on phone

In a typical month, how do you spend on your pets and pet food?

Pet expenses

In a typical month, how much do you spend on health, beauty, and grooming products?

Money spent on health and beauty products

1

$0-20 (3 points)
2

$20 - 50 (2 points)
3

$50 - 100 (1 point)
4

£100+ (0 points)

In a typical month, how much do you spend on phone internet and TV contracts?

Money spent on phone internet and TV contracts?

Which of these types of waste do you recycle and/or compost?

Recycle/compost food

1

Food (1 point)
2

Tin cans (1 point)
3

Paper (1 point)
4

Glass (1 point)
5

Plastic (1 point)

Consumer habits: Total points out of 19

Set targets to improve your consumer habits footprint score

We have detailed top tips below to help you work to improve your environmental footprint associated with your travel.

Consumer habits

Buy one expensive thing:

We live in a culture of disposable fashion which is taking its toll on the environment. Buy one well made expensive item of clothing rather than replacing it with cheaper alternatives. This will stop the waste of resources in the manufacturing industry, it will cut down on transport costs and carbon costs of the supply chain too. Fewer clothes being transported will reduce emissions on the road.

Our tips

- Treat yourself to that expensive new coat and make it last a lifetime

- Sometimes you need to buy items such as large furniture items, or clothing items for a trip or event. Look to offset this behavior by investing in sustainable projects/research.

Buy second hand

Adopt a circular economy model for your consumer habits and start to buy second hand. The results will benefit your wallet and change the economy for the better. Charity and second-hand shops have stringent quality control procedures meaning clothes items will be of high quality.

Our tips

- At Process Street we champion a minimalistic lifestyle. If you don't need it, don't buy it, with less being more.

Use the short-text form fields to set yourself targets to improve the environmental footprint associated with your housing arrangement.

Consumer habits: Target 1

Consumer habits: Target 2

Consumer habits: Target 3

Your numerical results:

View your the numerical results for your carbon footprint

Your numerical carbon footprint points

Diet: {{form.Diet:_Total_points_out_of_14}}

Travel: {{form.Travel:_Total_points_out_of_33}}

Housing: {{form.Housing:_Total_points_out_of_30}}

Consumer habits: {{form.Consumer_habits:_Total_points_out_of_19}}

Calculate your carbon footprint numerical total and detail using the short-text form field below.

Carbon footprint numerical total out of 94

Calculate your carbon footprint total as a percentage via dividing {{form.Carbon_footprint_numerical_total_out_of_94}} by 94, then multiplying the value by 100.

Select the percentage distribution that your score falls under

Percentage score

1

0 - 25%
2

26% - 50%
3

51% - 75%
4

76% - 100%

Your carbon footprint results:

Acknowledge your carbon footprint is in Band 1 (very low impact)

Congratulations!

Your carbon footprint: >8 tonnes

Did you know that Sweden is the most eco-friendly country in the world - the average carbon footprint per person is 10 tonnes! Compare this to the average carbon footprint in the USA, which is 16 tonnes. To meet the 2050 goals, the energy consumption needs to come down to 8 tonnes per person.