SEVEN THINGS YOU CAN DO TO LEAD A GREENER LIFE
We show the CO2 you’ve saved in the header on your profile page. It will say ‘Estimated’ until you tell us yourself by clicking ‘Update’ and filling in a quick questionnaire about your green life. Or if you already had some CO2 savings in the old Green Thing site they will have been transferred across. The estimated CO2 is based on the average saving from all Green Thing members – we use the information people give us on the site plus some research panel interviews a few times a year.
Click ‘Update’ by the CO2 number shown in the header on your profile page and then fill in a quick questionnaire about your green life. You can update this as often as you like.
There are many different opinions about how to calculate the precise CO2 savings from any individual action and accurate accounting is difficult in this whole area. Green Thing tries to be as precise as possible in measuring the impact of each Green Thing action and you can see all the data and calculations in the Green Thing Wiki.
There's always going to be a level of inaccuracy in this kind of measurement, and we're also relying on an honor system when people tell us they're doing the Green Thing. When people join Green Thing we estimate their individual savings based on the average for all Green Thing members until they fill in the ‘My CO2 savings’ section of their profile. We also run customer research panels to double check we’re not counting too much or too little.
But Green Thing is more focused on measuring the collective effect of everyone's actions. The CO2 saved by a global community of people doing the Green Thing is one thing, and that will be measured as accurately as it can be. But making a powerful statement that people want more ambitious action by business and government is another.
If you want a hardcore measurement of your personal 'carbon footprint' it's probably best to use things like this official UK Government CO2 calculator. Green Thing plans to let people who have more accurate CO2 footprint calculations on other sites count the CO2 they measure there on their Green Thing profile too.
