How green are you? These 5 green living calculators can show you how sustainable or unsustainable your lifestyle and consumer decisions are.
1. Carbon Footprint Calculator: What Is Your Overall Environmental Impact?
One of the easiest ways to see where you succeed at living a sustainable lifestyle (and where you could use improvement) is by using a carbon footprint calculator. These calculators examine your housing, energy use, transportation, food choices, and other elements of your lifestyle to estimate your impact on the planet. Many will tell you how many worlds we would need if everyone lived your lifestyle.
2. Greendex: Are You a Sustainable Consumer?
National Geographic has partnered with GlobeScan to develop Greendex, a global sustainable consumption index based on consumer behavior and lifestyles from 17 countries. According to their surveys, Indian consumers are the most sustainable, while American consumers came in last (17th) place. National Geographic also has a "Greendex Calculator", which allows you to determine your own Greendex score.
3. Global Fat Scale: How Green Is Your Diet?
A big component of your ecological footprint is your food consumption. Food production requires a great deal of energy, water and land resources, so if you consume more than your fair share, you could be negatively impacting the environment.
BBC's Global Fat Scale compares your Body Mass Index (BMI) to your country and the rest of the world. A cool feature of this calculator is that it tells you which country you're most likely from based on your BMI.
4. Transportation Calculator: How Green Is Your Travel?
This simple calculator from Transport Direct uses a visual to compare the carbon emissions of traveling by small car, large car, bus, train, and plane.
Waste Calculator: How Wasteful Are You?
This EcoConsumer Waste Calculator is for Washington state, but it can give you a good idea of how your purchasing decisions and waste habits can impact the environment.
Or, check out this e-waste calculator to see how recycling various electronics benefits the environment.