Do you know your pet's carbon pawprint?

As the first Carbon Positive pet insurer in the UK, we are committed to reducing our impact on the planet. We absolutely love pets and know that they enrich our lives in so many ways, but they too have an environmental impact.

While pets have a relatively low impact compared to an adult human, there are ways in which we can reduce it. Through recent surveys, we know that pet owners are increasingly interested in sustainability, and how they can care for their pets in the most environmentally friendly way possible. Calculating your pet’s carbon pawprint (environmental impact), will give you a great place to start – you can’t manage what you haven’t measured!

By answering a series of short questions about your pet’s diet and lifestyle, we are able to estimate the carbon impact of each answer. This gives us a total amount of carbon in KG at the end of the calculator. We also compare your pet’s carbon pawprint to the average adult humans carbon footprint (13 tonnes CO2e) to provide some context.

There are many factors to consider when working out a carbon pawprint. The biggest impact is usually from your pet’s diet (as most will be on a meat-based food, which may have a higher carbon impact than plants). We then consider what else you may be doing with your pet:

• How many minutes do you drive to walks and activities – We have included carbon emissions from an average car based on how often your pets are being taken somewhere specifically for them.

• Dog walking – Again, we have added in emissions associated with a dog walker travelling to and from your house.

• Day care and kennels/catteries – We have included emissions from cooling, heating, and electricity, along with estimated travel emissions to and from facilities.

• Veterinary spend and treats / accessories – Buying products, medications and equipment for your pets carries a carbon cost for these to be produced. We have allocated an average carbon emissions amount to these based on your spend.

On the final results page of the calculator, there will be an ‘Offset Now’ button. This will take you directly to webpage page to offset your pets emissions and pay directly through a secure portal.

Simply put, offsetting is a way to balance your emissions (individual, pets, or businesses), by funding an equivalent CO2e saving elsewhere.

This may be by supporting renewable energy projects to be built (wind, solar and hydro power), which reduce the reliance on fossil fuels. It could be preventing forests from being logged and destroyed, preserving mature trees, and stopping deforestation.

We only invest in projects that are verified and accredited by the worlds leading carbon registries, such as The Gold Standard, VERRA and the United Nations.

(Please note – Tree planting is not offsetting, this is done alongside offsetting as a totally separate initiative, for future benefits and to help biodiversity)

• 12 months of carbon offsetting, invested only in high impact Gold Standard, VERRA or United Nations accredited projects.

• One tree planted on your pet’s behalf.

• Personalised certificates for both carbon offsets and tree in your pet’s name.

We round up the carbon pawprint amount to the nearest whole tonne. This is because we retire credits in whole, by the complete tonne, and to ensure we are not under accounting for any of your pet’s emissions.

We have based the emissions data on peer reviewed papers, emissions conversion factors from the UK Government and DEFRA, and followed the GHG carbon accounting protocol.

If you have any further questions on this please contact us at info@ecooffset.org

Rabbits are typically a very sustainable pet. They eat a plant-based diet, don’t often get transported in the car, and their vet spend is (usually!) lower than a cat or dog. Based on that, there would be very little variation on emissions between rabbits, so a calculator wouldn’t be very helpful for rabbit owners.

Horses do indeed have a carbon hoofprint – please click here to go to our equine calculator.