Calculate Your Household's Carbon Footprint

The purpose of this calculator is to give you an estimate of your carbon footprint.

In order to tackle climate change each of us have a responsibility to first of all understand our carbon footprint and then to take action to reduce it through our own actions and choices as consumers, as well as by putting pressure on governments, businesses and other organisations to take measures to limit carbon emissions.

For these more detailed questions it might be useful to have certain pieces of information to hand.

Age of the property you live in
Amount of fuel you use in your home each year (kgs for solid fuel/bottled gas and litres for liquid fuels)
A copy of your electricity bills for the year
Annual spend on good and services (there are default values if you don’t know this)
Annual mileage on personal modes of transport (car, motorbike)
Amount of fuel you use for recreational activities (e.g. off road vehicles)
Annual milage or time spent on public transport

This calculator is intended to calculate your personal/household carbon footprint and is not aimed at businesses. Therefore, any work-related activities such as flights should be excluded.

Find out more about our approach to this calculator on the Methodology page.

I have read the carbon calculator and confirm that I am over 16 years of age. I agree to share the data I enter into the carbon calculator with members of the ICNZ Project.

Privacy notice

Aquatera Limited, a limited company registered in Scotland under company number SC206441, whose registered address is Block 3 Old Academy Business Centre, Stromness, Orkney, United Kingdom, KW16 3AW (“Aquatera”, “our”, “us” or “we”) is the Data Controller for any personal data processed about you for the purposes set out in this Privacy Notice. Aquatera Ltd’s ICO registration number is ZA424815. This notice outlines what personal data Aquatera collects and processes about you as part of the Household Carbon Calculator.

The Islands Centre for Net Zero (ICNZ) is a pan-island distributed innovation centre, supported by the Islands Deal, that helps Orkney, Shetland, and the Outer Hebrides lead the way in the energy transition. The Household Carbon Calculator is part of our mission to provide individuals and households with tools to better understand and reduce their carbon footprints.

This project is led by the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) with key partners including Orkney Islands Council, Shetland Islands Council, Comhairle Nan Eilean Siar, Heriot-Watt University, Aquatera Ltd, and Community Energy Scotland (“ICNZ partners”). The ICNZ project is funded jointly by the UK Government and Scottish Government.

Our Data Processing

Aquatera manages the Household Carbon Calculator and uses the data collected through the Household Carbon Calculator to estimate carbon emissions for households and provide tailored recommendations on reducing environmental impact. This data helps us to:

Generate personalised carbon footprint calculations
Identify common carbon-saving opportunities
Support our mission of promoting sustainability across island communities

Through the Household Carbon Calculator, we may collect personal data from households, including but not limited to:

Your name and email address for account creation and user identification as provided by you when setting up your Household Carbon Capture account with us;
Household size and energy usage;
Heating and cooling habits;
Transportation patterns;
Waste production; and
Water usage.

We also collect data from general visitors to our website, such as IP addresses, to ensure proper functionality and optimise the user experience.

Lawful reasons bases we rely on to process your information

We will only use your personal data when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we will use your personal data in the following circumstances where:

It is necessary for our legitimate interests to meet the aims of our organization and this project but respecting your interests and rights
You have given us your consent to process your personal data
Processing is necessary for us to perform a public task carried out in the public interest as set out in law.

When we process special category personal data, in addition to the above legal reasons we may process your special category data if:

We have obtained your explicit consent
There is a substantial public interest for us to do so

Withdrawing Consent

If we rely upon your consent to process your personal data, you may request to withdraw consent at any time by contacting us at which point we shall stop processing your personal data in that way. Please note that this does not affect the legality of our processing up to the date of you tell us you want to withdraw consent.

How Long We Retain Your Data

We retain your personal data only for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes described in this privacy notice. All data will be securely disposed of once it is no longer needed. In general, data provided through the Household Carbon Calculator is stored for a maximum of one year from submission or as long as you have a Household Carbon Checker account, unless otherwise required to comply with legal obligations or for performance tracking in anonymised forms.

Automated Processing and Profiling

Your personal data will not be subject to automated processing or profiling. Our Household Carbon Calculator may analyse public data, such as your postcode, automatically to calculate carbon footprints and provide insights. This processing helps us offer relevant recommendations but does not have legal or significant effects on you. To safeguard privacy, we aim to anonymise and aggregate data for analysis, ensuring minimal risk to individual privacy.

Third-Party Data Sharing

To support the development, maintenance, and improvement of the Household Carbon Calculator, we may share data with our ICNZ partners and approved third-party service providers. However, all data-sharing activities are strictly governed by Aquatera Ltd as the data controller.

Aquatera Ltd. is responsible for overseeing the use and sharing of data collected through the Household Carbon Calculator in compliance with this Privacy Notice, UK GDPR regulations, and the Data Protection Act 2018. Access to raw personal data is restricted to authorised ICNZ partners and service providers solely for project-related purposes and under clearly defined agreements. Any data sharing is conducted under Aquatera’s direct oversight to ensure compliance with legal obligations and to protect individual privacy. Wherever possible shared personal data is anonymised or aggregated to minimise risks to individual privacy. Aquatera ensures that third parties only process data as instructed and for the purposes explicitly outlined in this privacy notice.

Data Transfers

Your data may be transferred outside the UK. If it is necessary to transfer your personal data outside the UK, then we will put in place additional measures to protect your personal data to ensure it remains protected.

Your Rights

Under UK data protection law, you have a number of rights which you can contact us to exercise. These are:

Right of access to the data we process about you
Right to rectification of any data we process that may be incorrect
Right to erasure of data we process about you
Right to restrict processing of data we process about you
Right to object to the Bureau processing your data
Right to data portability
Right not to be subject to automated decision-making and profiling

Your ability to exercise these rights may dpened on our reason for processing your personal data. Please contact dpo@aquatera.co.uk.

Is My Personal Data Safe?

Aquatera uses technical and organisational measures to keep your data secure, guarding against unauthorised access, alteration, or disclosure. Only authorised personnel and partners are allowed access to personal data, and all parties must handle it in accordance with our privacy and security standards.

Data Controller Contact Details

For questions, comments, or requests regarding this privacy notice, please contact dpo@aquatera.co.uk. For more information on the Islands Centre for Net Zero, please visit https://www.icnz.org/.

Supervisory Authority Contact Details

You have the right to lodge a complaint to the Information Commissioner about the processing of your data. Their contact details are:

Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow
Cheshire, SK9 5AF. Tel: 0303 123 1113. The website is at: https://ico.org.uk.

Changes to This Privacy Notice

This privacy notice may be updated periodically. We will send any updates to the email address registered to your account.

Last Updated: June 2025