As part of our annual criteria, each member of the Sustainability Champions for the Department of Geography was asked by King’s Sustainability team to calculate our carbon footprint. I’m someone who cycles daily, doesn’t own a car, tries to eat a meat-free diet and lives in a shared house with electricity provided by a renewable energy provider. I have to admit, I was expecting my carbon footprint to be fairly small (and even to feel a bit smug). However, when I calculated it using the WWF carbon footprint calculator, I was shocked to discover that I was using 216% of my share (with 100% the average for each UK citizen to meet the UK’s 2020 emissions reduction targets). Of my share, 86% was from travel contributions, as shown in Figure 1. Continue reading “Academic Carbon Footprints”