The resources we use and greenhouse gases we emit through our lifestyle choices are currently exceeding the capacity of life support systems of Earth.
Today we have a choice: either we keep living in the same old ways, while our planet continues to degrade, or we can take up the challenge, explore the true impacts of our lifestyles, and seek to radically change the way we live.
Project 90 by 2030 has a vision – to see
South Africans from all sectors of society doing their bit to preserve the environment, committed to changing the way they live by 90% by the year 2030 .
In this booklet we provide information to help you figure out your carbon footprint.
We also provide a range of activities that can help you to think of ways to live differently. There are simple exercises to help you calculate just about every impact of your lifestyle, including the food you eat, energy you use and the waste you create.
These activities can help you make informed choices about effective lifestyle change. We invite you to join us in cutting carbon through making choices that preserve the environment. Dare to change!

A greenhouse gas (GHG) is a gas that traps heat energy in the Earth’s atmosphere, causing the Earth to warm up . The most common GHGs are carbon dioxide, water vapour, methane, nitrous oxide, ozone and chlorofluorocarbons.
Without GHGs, Earth would be around
30 degrees Centigrade colder than it is today. We therefore need these gases to keep the Earth warm enough to sustain life. However, very high concentrations of
GHGs are harmful because they trap too much heat , causing the Earth to become uncomfortably warm and triggering extreme weather events like severe storms and droughts.
The contribution to the greenhouse effect by a gas is affected by both the characteristics of the gas and its abundance . So for example, on a molecule-for-molecule basis, methane is about 25 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.
However, it is present in much smaller concentrations, so its total climate impact is smaller than that of carbon dioxide.
What does ppm mean?
One part per million (ppm) denotes one part per
1,000,000 parts or one part in 10 6 . This is equivalent to one drop of water diluted into 50 litres (the fuel tank capacity of a compact car) of water. Parts per million refers to the relative proportion or a comparative ratio.
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Although water vapour is the most prevalent GHG , it is very difficult for people to directly reduce the amount of water vapour in the atmosphere. We focus on carbon because we can reduce the amount of carbon-containing gases (CO
2 and methane) in the atmosphere by changing our lifestyles. Currently most of us live carbon-intensive lives. We burn fuels that contain carbon (e.g. wood, coal, oil and gas), releasing large amounts of CO
2 and methane into the atmosphere. The higher the levels of these gases in the atmosphere, the more the sun’s energy is trapped, resulting in warming of the atmosphere and the surface of the Earth.
As a result of this warming more evaporation takes place, and this in turn increases the amount of water vapour in the atmosphere. Hence our focus on cutting carbon !
This is what a comparison of greenhouse gas industrial level since gases between 1750 and 2010 looks like:
Carbon dioxide
(CO
2
)
Methane
Nitrous
Oxide
CFC-12
280 ppm 387 ppm
107 ppm
700 ppb 1745 ppb
270 ppb 314 ppb
0
1045 ppb
44 ppb
533 ppt 533 ppt
How does global warming occur?
Carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are released into the atmosphere, accumulating mainly in the layer of the atmosphere closest to the Earth’s surface (the troposphere). Shortwave radiation from the sun
(especially visible light) passes through this layer and warms the surface of the Earth. The Earth then re-radiates heat (longer wave infrared radiation) back into the atmosphere.
If it wasn’t for greenhouse gases (GHGs) like CO
2
, at night this heat would escape into space and the Earth would cool down radically . But GHGs can absorb heat (infrared) and later release it back into the atmosphere, keeping it warm. The atmosphere with its GHGs functions like a warm blanket around the
Earth . As more and more carbon dioxide and other
GHGs are released into the atmosphere, there are more molecules present to trap heat . This causes the temperature of the atmosphere and the
Earth’s surface to rise further.
ppm = parts per million; ppb = parts per billion; ppt parts per trillion

Why the focus on cutting carbon – isn’t methane much worse?
Methane is about twenty five times more potent as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, but it is present in much smaller concentrations in the Earth’s atmosphere. So its total climate impact is smaller than that of carbon dioxide.
2
Every action that we perform on Earth needs energy:
• Our bodies need energy to do work, such as lifting things, walking and digging. For this we need to eat food and breathe in oxygen . Our bodies break down food into glucose and fatty acids, the fuels our bodies can use. Our cells use these fuels and oxygen for respiration, releasing the energy from the food and producing small amounts of CO
2 breathe out .
that we
• We use animals to do work for us (e.g. oxen ploughing, horses pulling a cart). But animals also eat food and produce CO
2 when they respire. Herbivores (plant-eating animals) also produce methane (a powerful GHG) as a byproduct of digesting cellulose (plant fibre).
• Machines do work for us (e.g. ploughing with a tractor, driving a car). These machines generate CO
2 in their production and need fuel to operate. This is usually in the form of
“fossil fuels” such as oil and petrol. Burning oil and petrol releases energy to move the vehicle and at the same time releases significant amounts of CO atmosphere.
2 into the
• We use electricity to do work for us (e.g. to run machinery in factories or appliances in our homes). But in South Africa most electricity comes from the burning of coal . Burning coal at power stations releases huge amounts of CO
2 the air.

Many millions of years ago, before there was any sign of life on Earth, there was no free oxygen in the atmosphere (i.e. there was no O
2
).
Roughly one billion years ago (one thousand million years ago) the first life appeared as blue-green algae.
This primitive one-celled organism was able to use light from the sun to photosynthesize , taking in CO
2 molecules and releasing the first O
2 molecules. THE FIRST FREE
OXYGEN was released!
Over the millennia, more complex plants appeared and these continued taking in CO
2 and releasing O
2
. This process allowed the atmosphere to become more oxygen rich and this allowed animals to evolve .
During the carboniferous era (which lasted 50 million years), many trees, cycads and ferns grew and died.
During their lives they took in CO
2
, kept the carbon to build their bulk, and released O
2
. Once the plants died they sank into the swamps and eventually, over millions of years, became coal .
They did not rot away as most plants would today. Over this incredibly long time a LOT of carbon was taken in from the atmosphere and stored under the ground as coal, oil and natural gas.

Eventually, at the end of the carboniferous era, the measurement of CO
2 in the atmosphere was 250 parts per million (ppm) . This meant that conditions on Earth were now able to support a wide range of biodiversity , or different forms of life, including humans!
When we burn this ancient coal today we release the carbon stored for millennia back into the atmosphere as CO
2
. This of course increases the amount of CO
2 in the atmosphere. Today our atmosphere has about 380 parts per million of
CO
2 and it will keep increasing with dramatic consequences – unless we learn how to need less coal, petrol and oil.
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In the following sections of this booklet we provide you with guidelines for working out your carbon footprint in relation to each of the following:
We have also produced an on-line
Carbon Footprint Calculator , which is available as part of this toolkit. The
Carbon Calculator provides a reasonably accurate idea of your carbon footprint for energy, transport, water and waste .
The following activities have been designed to be interactive and relevant to South African learners in
Grades 8 to 12, and can be downloaded and printed for off-line use.

Did you know?
In South Africa, because of our high dependence on coalgenerated electricity, 1 kg of CO
2 is produced for every kWh of electricity consumed!
Electricity in South Africa is mainly produced by the burning of coal. This section enables you to calculate your carbon footprint in relation to your electricity use.
A Watt is a unit of electric power and when combined with time, measures electric energy as a Wh (Watt hour).
A kWh (kilowatt-hour) is
1000W per hour . This is the unit used by ESKOM to charge their customers.
List all of the things that you use everyday that rely on electricity. Feel free to amend this list as necessary.
Record the Watt rating of each of these appliances. You will find this underneath each appliance. (this is an indication of how much power the appliance draws).
Divide by 1000 to get kilowatts
A Watt rating is the rating given to all appliances indicating the amount of power they draw.
Lights
Computer
Some appliances that use transformers might not give you a Watt rating, but will give information about the voltage (the electrical potential in
Volts) and current (in
Amperes). You can work out the Watt rating using the following equation: 1
Watt = 1 Volt × 1 Ampere.
Heater
Kettle
Fan
Air-conditioning
Stove
T.V.
Toaster
2200 W ÷ 1000 = 2,2 kW
750W
Did you know?
In 2009 alone, Eskom burnt more than 200 million tonnes of coal, which released about 260 million tonnes of CO
2 into the air.
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2
Activity outline:
• Time required: some preparation before the day plus one full day and time for writing up findings afterwards.
• This can be done as a group competition or as an individual investigation.
What you need to check (pick what you use yourself only):
Appliance No.
Time
(hours)
Wattage
(W)
Kilowatt hours
Watt Rating x No. of hours per day /
1000
Light bulbs
(bedroom)
Light bulbs
(other rooms)
Light bulbs
(classrooms)
Toaster
Kettle
TOTAL:
Finding:
Therefore: _________kWh x 0,98kg CO
2
= _________kg CO
2 e
I generate approximately ___________ kg of CO
2 e per day by using electric lights and appliances.
To check your household’s electricity usage: find your electricity meter and record the meter reading indicated. At the same time the following day record your meter reading again and deduct the first reading from this. This is the total amount of electricity consumed by your household in 24 hours.
Naturally this excludes electricity that you consume off-site.

Did you know?
Did you know that
2,33kg of CO
2 e is produced for every 1 litre of petrol combusted and that
2,67kg of CO
2 e per litre of diesel? Diesel vehicles have a better mileage per litre, so tend to be the lower carbon emitting option.
This section allows you to calculate your carbon footprint in relation to your travel activities. To keep things simple we have only used the formula for petrol.
2
Activity Outline:
• Time required – some preparation before the day plus one full day and time for writing up findings afterward.
• This can be a group activity with groups competing or an individual investigation.
To measure the distance you travel each day by car: take your vehicle’s odometer reading at the start of your journey and at the end of the journey, your distance travelled is the difference. If you travel by taxi or bus, divide the number of people in the vehicle by the distance to work out an average footprint per person.
To calculate the fuel efficiency of your vehicle: the onboard computer if available will provide you with your average fuel efficiency.
Alternatively fill your vehicle’s fuel tank and record the litres of fuel that went into the tank.
Once you have used up the tank of fuel, record the mileage covered. Now divide the number of kilometres travelled by the litres of fuel used.

Record the distances you travel on a typical day here:
To school
To sport/ activities
___________km
___________km
Home from school ___________km
Other ___________km
Total ___________km
From the above you can now work out how much CO
2 e is released by your driving needs on an average day:
___________km ___________km/L
(vehicle consumption) =
___________litres used
Therefore: ___________ litres x 2,33 (if petrol) or 2.67 (if diesel) =
___________kg CO
2 e
I generate approximately
___________ kg of CO
2 e per day through my mode of transport.

This section enables you to calculate your carbon emissions related to water use . All the water that you use in a day needs to be pumped to your house or school. This requires electricity . But water’s carbon footprint is not only related to electricity consumption – building dams to store water requires a lot of concrete. Concrete is not only energy intensive to make (mining, processing, transportation), it also releases additional carbon dioxide through the chemical process of converting limestone to cement.
2
Activity Outline:
• Time required: some preparation before the day plus one full day and time for writing up findings afterwards.
• This is an individual investigation.
Preparation:
• Update the audit sheet (see next page) throughout the day.
• You will need to estimate the water needed for washing clothes, washing dishes and cooking.
• Showering : hold a bucket at the showerhead. Switch on the tap at the volume that you would normally use for showering and let the bucket fill for 1 minute. Measure the amount of water in the bucket using a one litre bottle. Now record how long you normally shower for and multiply those minutes by the volume in the bucket.
• Cleaning teeth and washing hands : Hold a jug under the tap and open the tap to the volume you would normally use for washing your hands or cleaning your teeth and allow the jug to fill for one minute . Then, time yourself washing your hands or brushing your teeth and multiply by the volume.
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Washing
Hands (ml)
Flushing
Toilet (l)
Showering
(l)
Washing
Clothes (l)
Washing
Dishes (l)
Cooking (l)
Other (l)
Other (l)
Day 1 Before
Lunch
Lunch to supper
After
Supper
No.
Amount No.
Amount No.
Total
Amount Amount
Glasses of water
(340 ml)
Cups of coffee/ tea
(250 ml)
Brushing
Teeth (ml)
Total:

Total litres ________ x 0,00178 kg CO
2 e =
___________
I generate approximately
___________ kg of CO
2 e per day because of the water I consume.
To check your household’s water usage: find your water meter and record the meter reading indicated. At the same time the following week (7 days later) record your meter reading again and deduct the first reading from this. This is the total amount of water consumed by your household in an average week.
Naturally this excludes water that you consume off-site.
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This section enables you to calculate your carbon emissions related to
Traditionally waste
, we have approached the problem of waste by encouraging the separation of recyclable waste into bins for plastic, tins, paper and glass, etc.
.
To keep things simple we have just used the formula for five types of waste.
See table below.
Although this approach does assist us in managing existing waste, it does not deal with the underlying problem of wastefulness.
It does not draw attention to issues such as why we continue to produce excessive waste even though we are running out of landfill space, nor does it question how waste production can be reduced at its source .
Did you know?
Everything that you throw away was probably originally made somewhere in a factory. The process of making the item produced CO
2 emissions and also produced significant waste. In fact it has been calculated that for every kg of final waste you produce 70kg of waste was produced upstream. We recommend you watch the Story of Stuff
( http://storyofstuff.org
)
See the Project 90 waste booklet for more ideas on how to reduce waste and live more simply.
Type of waste
Organic material
Paper
Plastic
Glass
Metal
Estimated CO
2 e produced per kilogram of waste
0,62
2,13
3,30
1,03
2,20

Let’s face it, trash is a messy business. Be warned, this exercise is not for the faint-hearted. But it will be an eye-opener, so go on – dare to do it!
Activity outline:
• Time required: some preparation before the day plus one full day and time for writing up findings afterwards.
• This can be a group competition or an individual investigation.
Preparation:
1. Get permission from your school for this exercise and be aware that there may be smells and probably a few flies too.
2. Find a plastic bag that you think all your trash for one day should fit into.
3. Put everything that you would have thrown into the bin into the bag.
4. At the end of the day separate the rubbish out into organic, paper, plastic, glass, tin.
5. Weigh each separate pile.
6. Enter the data on the audit sheet on the next page and multiply the weight of the waste by the estimated mass of CO
2 produced per kilogram of waste. Use a calculator if necessary.
7. Record your total CO
2 e emissions per category of waste.
8. Work out your total CO
2 e emissions for the day.
9. Go and have a (short) shower.
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Type of waste
Mass of waste
(kg)
Mass of
CO
2 e produced per kilogram of waste
Total CO
2 e emissions
(kg)
0,62 Organic
Material
Paper
Plastic
Glass
Metal
2,13
3,30
1,03
2,20
TOTAL
I generate approximately ___________ kg of waste per day and this releases
___________ kg of CO
2 e

Did you know?
“ Food miles ” is a term which refers to the distance that food is transported from the time of its production until it reaches the consumer .
There is a lot of debate about whether it is more environmentally friendly to buy food locally or support small-scale farmers in developing countries .
In addition to the difficulty of accurately measuring the carbon footprint of food, the concept of food miles does not take into account the social, political and overall sustainability issues of food production and consumption.
This section enables you to estimate your carbon footprint associated with the food and drink that you consume. Given that the process of producing food is dependent on a vast range of actors, a carbon footprint of food is not easy to work out.
The most important considerations when thinking about the carbon footprint of your food are:
1. How far did it travel to get to you?
2. Is it in season or has it been flown in from somewhere else, or refrigerated for months?
3. Has it already been prepared or processed ?
4. What type of food is it: vegetable, fruit, meat or fish?
5. What kind of packaging is it presented in?
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The Enviro Meal is an educational activity which examines some of the choices we make as consumers – in particular choices around food, packaging and waste, which have an impact on our environment. It helps us to identify real possibilities for taking action in our own contexts.
The problem of waste sometimes seems insurmountable, but the
Enviro Meal shows us how we can contribute to reducing waste through everyday decisions we make as consumers.
The activity is exciting and competitive and lends itself to active participation by everyone involved. In addition to the environmental learning which grows out of the activity, the Enviro Meal is great for team-building!
Activity outline:
• Time required: 4 – 6 hours.
• Group size: 12 – 36 participants in 3 to 4 teams (depending on available cooking facilities)
• Resources: Each team should be supplied with an Enviro Meal audit sheet, a pencil, a cardboard box and cash with which to buy the food and facilities to prepare a meal and serve it (around
R20.00 per person).
Instructions for participants
• Your team must plan and prepare a meal , which you will eat together.
• You will need to purchase all of the ingredients you need for the meal with the money in your budget.
• Your prepared meal will be audited to assess its environmental impacts, in terms of food types and packaging.
• The Enviro Meal audit sheet will be used to assess these impacts.
• Your team’s final score represents the impact of your meal on the environment. The higher the score, the greater the impact.
• Have fun!

• You may not add your own money to the money provided - you must remain within the budget.
• Your team should attempt to cater for the preferences and special dietary requirements of all of its members.
• Teams may not exchange or purchase items, such as salt and oil, from each other.
• You may not remove any packaging from items while shopping to reduce your packaging points. Collect and keep all items of packaging, which came with your ingredients, in your cardboard box. Nothing may be discarded.
• All purchases should be accompanied by till slips - keep these for auditing purposes.
Guidelines for facilitators
The Enviro Meal is a useful way to start probing the relationships between our lifestyles, the structures within society and environmental impacts. There is enormous potential for adapting the activity to examine other impacts, for example, energy used in preparing meals, distance travelled to purchase food, mode of travel, distance products have travelled to reach the shops where we purchase them, and agricultural and industrial processes involved in producing them for us. As with any educational process , facilitators need to think critically about the Enviro Meal and how to use it or adapt it appropriately.
Here are some specific things for facilitators to bear in mind:
Planning the meal: After explaining the purpose of the activity and the rules, give the teams about 20 minutes to plan their meals. If the group is very large, delegate members to do different things, e.g. shopping, recording, cooking, setting the table, etc.
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Shopping: Allow at least an hour for the shopping . Most of the challenges and difficult choices in this activity will be experienced while shopping. Facilitators should speak to shop managers and security personnel beforehand to explain the purpose of the activity and perhaps get permission for the consultation that will need to happen in their store.
Many first-time participants are unaccustomed to examining food packaging and struggle to identify the different types. They must draw on each other and on the facilitators to help them with this and in so doing, gain more information.
Auditing the waste: Get each group to sort the waste they have collected in their boxes into the various packaging types for recycling. If the box is full, ask them to explain why they chose excessive packaging, or if there is very little waste, how they managed to keep their packaging to a minimum.
Auditing the meal: Each team’s meal should be audited using the Enviro Meal audit sheets . However, the sheets are provided as a guideline , so the learners are not forced to follow them strictly. They are encouraged to comment on the scoring system afterwards and to suggest how they would change it if they had to do the activity again.
How the scores work: You are aiming to keep your score as low as possible, so walking would score 0, traveling by car 6; locally supplied vegetables will score less than processed vegetables, and so on.
Reporting and consolidating: Ask each team to present their completed audit sheet and score and to explain why they got the score they did. Discuss the activity and the learning that has taken place.

Item Distance you traveled to buy this item (only score one distance if you bought items at the same shop).
Write “same” in the other blocks
Packaging Food/Drink
Type
Local,
National,
Imported
TOTALS

Food for thought at the end of the activity
- Some questions to discuss together
• What could you have done to reduce your carbon footprint in this activity?
• If you could do the Enviro Meal again, what would you do differently ?
• What influenced the decisions you made as a group?
• Did you stick to your original plan ? If not, why not?
• Did the options available at the shop make it easy for you to make environmentally-friendly choices?
• Who do you think is responsible for limiting our options in this way?
• Are there other environmental impacts, which the activity does not consider?
• What can you do , in your own life, to reduce your environmental impacts as a consumer?
• What will happen to the packaging and leftover food after this activity?
Acknowledgement
The Enviro Meal Activity was first developed by Environmental
Education Officers at Umgeni Valley Environmental Education
(EE) Centre in 2001, as part of an effort to strengthen the action orientation of their EE programmes. Project 90 by 2030 has adapted the activity for inclusion in this toolkit. The Umgeni Valley
Environmental Education (EE) Centre welcomes any feedback on the Enviro Meal.
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Down
1. Green House Gas – abbreviation
2. The measure of your impact on
Earth is called your carbon _____
4. Fossil fuels are primarily burned to make this, which we use for many activities such as running appliances in our homes
6. This greenhouse gas contributes
36 - 72 % of the total greenhouses gases in the atmosphere 5,6
8. Burning this black, solid fossil fuel releases carbon dioxide
10. Measurement of the electrical unit of power used by your appliances at home

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This booklet has been printed on Triple Green, an environmentally friendly paper produced in South
Africa. The fibre composition of Triple Green includes on average 60% sugar cane. This fibre
(Bagasse) is the remaining fibre after sugar has been extracted from the harvest cane.