To summarise, the personal carbon footprint is a useful way to evaluate how sustainable your life is. However, we shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that ultimately this measure has originated as a way to shift the blame onto individual people, and away from big companies that actually have the most impact and power to create change. It’s enforcing the idea that we just all need to make personal sacrifices and changes to our lifestyle to combat climate change, when in reality we need big global companies and organisations to take responsibility and address their own carbon footprints! These conglomerates have created a society within which it is extremely difficult to have a low carbon footprint. You don’t need to look far to see it: diesel cars are still cheaper than electric; most of the energy in the UK is still sourced from fossil fuels rather than renewables; food flown from across the world is often cheaper than locally sourced goods; fast fashion is cheaper and more accessible than sustainable fashion; and most products are still wrapped in single use plastic packaging. Without these organisations making some serious changes, there is a limit to how much individuals can do. Of course, this isn’t to say that we shouldn’t all be doing our best to live our most sustainable, environmentally friendly lives, just that the blame shouldn’t be entirely on us as individual people. I am a big believer that to make a difference change needs to be seen in both individuals AND large corporations, and that it is only by working together that we will see positive changes going into the future.

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