A User-Friendly Tool to Increase Awareness about Impacts of Human Daily Life Activities on Carbon Footprint

Antonella Senese, Anna Claudia Caspani (), Lorenzo Lombardo, Veronica Manara, Guglielmina Adele Diolaiuti and Maurizio Maugeri
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Antonella Senese: Department of Environmental Science and Policy (ESP), Università degli Studi di Milano, Via Celoria 10, 20133 Milan, Italy
Anna Claudia Caspani: Department of Economics, University of Insubria, Via Monte Generoso 71, 21100 Varese, Italy
Lorenzo Lombardo: Department of Environmental Science and Policy (ESP), Università degli Studi di Milano, Via Celoria 10, 20133 Milan, Italy
Veronica Manara: Department of Environmental Science and Policy (ESP), Università degli Studi di Milano, Via Celoria 10, 20133 Milan, Italy
Guglielmina Adele Diolaiuti: Department of Environmental Science and Policy (ESP), Università degli Studi di Milano, Via Celoria 10, 20133 Milan, Italy
Maurizio Maugeri: Department of Environmental Science and Policy (ESP), Università degli Studi di Milano, Via Celoria 10, 20133 Milan, Italy

Sustainability, 2024, vol. 16, issue 5, 1-20

Abstract: In recent decades, climate change has demanded more and more attention. Consumers have the power to influence the carbon footprint of goods and services through their purchasing decisions, but to do this they need to learn more. To address this need, it is necessary to develop online questionnaires able to make people aware of which activities have a greater environmental impact in their daily lives. Focusing on this goal, we formulated two tools for quantifying an individual’s carbon footprint over a year. The innovativeness of these tools lies in being user-friendly and providing online open access to compilers, as well as using specific emission factors for the reference context. Specifically, we focused on the main emission sources: gas and electricity consumption, mobility, food, and waste. During these last years, the tools have been proposed to Italian students at different levels of education and to employees of Italian and international companies. The responses from 3260 users revealed an average annual direct carbon footprint per capita of about 5600 kg CO 2-eq , which, integrated with the estimate of indirect emissions, provides an estimate in good agreement with the value provided by the Italian National Inventory of greenhouse gases. With the developed tools, people are able to observe which sectors have the greatest impact and consequently are stimulated to emit less by adopting more sustainable behaviors.

Keywords: online tool; greenhouse gas emissions; carbon footprint; individual impact; environmental awareness (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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