Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Footprint Calculator

An ecological footprint measures how much biologically productive land and water area is required to produce the resources a person consumes and absorb the waste they generate. It is expressed in global hectares (gha). If your footprint exceeds Earth's available biocapacity per person (~1.6 gha), you are consuming more than your fair share of planetary resources.

High-quality carbon offset projects are designed to deliver multiple co-benefits aligned with specific UN SDGs. For example, reforestation projects support SDG 15 (Life on Land), clean cookstove projects advance SDG 3 (Good Health) and SDG 7 (Affordable Clean Energy), and renewable energy projects contribute to SDG 13 (Climate Action). Choosing certified projects ensures your investment drives genuine sustainable development outcomes.

Carbon offsetting means compensating for your unavoidable emissions by funding projects that reduce or remove an equivalent amount of CO₂ from the atmosphere. While reducing your own footprint is always the first priority, offsetting helps neutralize residual emissions from activities like long-haul flights. It is an important tool for travelers and businesses working toward net-zero goals.

Aviation accounts for around 2.5% of global CO₂ emissions, and long-haul travel can add several tonnes of CO₂ to an individual's annual footprint in a single trip. Sustainable travel means first minimizing travel emissions where possible — choosing trains over short-haul flights, for example — and then offsetting what remains through certified, high-integrity carbon projects.

This calculator estimates your carbon footprint using emission factors for each lifestyle category: housing (based on energy source and electricity use), transport (car type, weekly distance, and flights), food (diet type and sourcing habits), and consumption (clothing and electronics purchases). These are combined into a total tCO₂e per year figure and converted to global hectares using standard carbon footprint to land-area conversion factors.

'Earths Required' shows how many planets would be needed if every person on Earth lived the same lifestyle as you. Earth has roughly 1.6 gha of biocapacity per person. If your footprint is 8 gha, the result would be approximately 5 Earths. Currently, humanity as a whole uses about 1.75 Earths worth of resources annually — a situation called ecological overshoot.

The compliance carbon market is a regulatory system where governments cap emissions and require businesses to purchase allowances for excess emissions (e.g. the EU ETS). The voluntary carbon market allows individuals, companies, and organizations to voluntarily purchase carbon credits to offset their emissions beyond any legal obligation. Both markets use credits representing one tonne of CO₂ removed or avoided, but standards and verification processes differ.

The SDG Alignment Score (out of 100) gives you a quick sense of how well your current lifestyle aligns with the sustainability targets embedded in the UN's 2030 Agenda, particularly SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption), SDG 13 (Climate Action), SDG 7 (Clean Energy), and SDG 15 (Life on Land). A higher score means your footprint is closer to a globally sustainable level. The score rewards renewable energy use, plant-rich diets, low-emission transport, and conscious consumption.