Trees4Good - sample CO2 Emissions

How C02 emissions are calculated by Trees4Good

A simple formula There are an incredible number of ways of calculating CO2 emissions. Trees4Good has not attempted to "re-invent the wheel" and come up with a new way of calculating them, we have simply averaged the amounts that we have seen calculated in several places by different organisations. As such we have come up with some basic guidelines for the number of trees that we believe need to be planted to offset CO2 emissions created by particular activities. The purpose of a guideline is just that - it isn't written in stone and to be honest we are NOT trying to be the most scientific people in the world at calculating the amounts of CO2 that are emitted. That's because we don't want to spend time discussing exact amounts when we can instead be helping to solve the problem. Part of the reason that we found people do not take their carbon footprint seriously is because there is little information that is simple enough for the average person to understand. What we do know is every tree we plant helps the environment. Below we give some examples of CO2 emissions, and leave it to the individuals to decide the exact number of trees to plant. For corporate's we have a more rigorous approach, which is of course handled by our corporate team, who are happy to talk to you regarding your needs.

Example 1: Vehicle usage

We found that each litre of fuel consumed by a vehicle engine produces approximately 2.5 kg of CO2 (the exact figures quoted vary, but we found this to be an average from looking at several sources of information).

So assuming this to be the case and you are an average driver in Europe, the following is true if you help us to plant Jatropha trees, which consume 8kg of CO2 every year per tree.

Your car averages 33 mpg (12 km per litre)
You drive 15,000 km per year
You used 1,250 litres of fuel
You produced 3,125 kg of CO2 – that’s 3.1 tonnes
You should plant (3,125kg / 8kg) to offset = 390 Jatropha trees (total CO2 emitted divided by the amount each tree can consume)

These trees only need to be planted ONCE of course, not every year.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Example - PC used 8 hours per day, 5 days per week
Usage of approximate. 300 kw annually
Planting 24 Jatropha trees eliminates the CO2 footprint of your computer (if its a games console such as an xBox, Wii or PS3 its about the same)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Example - a shorthaul flight from the UK to Barcelona.
The amount of CO2 generated here was found to vary considerably. Some airlines even claimed that it was "impossible" to calculate CO2 emissions from their aircraft (we won't be flying with them again becuase if this is impossible it worries us that they know how to maintain them!)

However after investigation we found that a sample short haul flight of London to Barcelona generated emissions as follows.

Distance 2276km - 264kg or 0.12kg per km (0.12g per passenger per km is an average for modern twin engined jet aircraft)
Thus planting 33 trees will offset making this flight ONCE per year.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

One of the best ways of working out how much CO2 your carbon footprint has in it is by using the UK Government's calculator. This is an excellent calculator, which is easy to use.

To use the UK Government Emissions Calculator, click here.