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Step 1 of 3: Choose your initiative's activities

 FAQ
Please choose the activities of your initiative (one or multiple):
Sustainable Transport of light weight goods, e.g. courier services via bike or electrical cars
Supporting sustainable personal transportation, e.g. by bike
Recycling of materials
Growing or selling locally produced organic food, e.g. through community gardens or food cooperatives
Saving food from businesses or saving food at home (e.g. redistributing still edible food from supermarkets)
Provision of more sustainable meals (e.g. vegetarian or vegan)
Generating heat from renewable resources (e.g. geothermal energy)
Generating electricity from renewable resources (e.g. solar energy)
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FAQ
For what kind of initiative does this tool apply?
The tool is designed to quantify the reductions of greenhouse gas emissions achieved by local community-based sustainability initiatives. These are initiated and managed by communities, are commonly run by volunteer work and aim to foster sustainability - often locally.
What is the relation between community-based sustainability initiatives and climate change?
An important aspect of sustainability is the mitigation of climate change. In 2015 an international agreement was signed to limit global warming by the end of this century to less than 2°C compared to pre-industrial levels (Paris Agreement). The role of civil society is explicitly mentioned in this agreement, in which community-based initiatives can play an important role in tackling this target by initiating changes locally.
Does the tool calculate the greenhouse gas emissions for my sustainability initiative?
No, it does not calculate the overall emissions your initiative causes. It calculates the main emissions which have been avoided thanks to your initiative compared to a so called 'baseline scenario'. This scenario describes what people would have done in the absence of your initiative (e.g. instead of profiting from organic food grown by your initiative they would have bought conventional food in a supermarket). The tool calculates the difference in greenhouse gas emissions between the activities your initiative is engaged in and the baseline scenario. This baseline scenario is defined specifically for each of the activities presented.
Why not apply a more detailed 'Life Cycle Assessment' to my initiative?
The methodology proposed responds to the nature and necessities of the majority of local sustainability initiatives. Therefore, rather than performing a detailed Life Cycle Assessment per initiative we constructed a robust method that accounts for the achieved greenhouse gas emission reductions based on the relatively low level of input data typically recorded by small initiatives. However, if your initiative has detailed records of the activities and has the necessary resources to perform a more comprehensive assessment you may follow this approach additionally.
Why do the results change depending on the location of the initiative?
The data applied for the baseline scenario for many activities depends on the country your initiative is located in. For example, the emissions caused by generating electricity are compared to the emissions caused by the national electricity-mix of the respective country. In some countries this mix is more carbon-intensive than in others (e.g. if the main energy source is coal). This means that an initiative generating sustainable electricity would achieve larger reductions in a country with less environmentally-friendly electricity mix.
What does CO2e mean?
CO2 is the gas that most contributes to the greenhouse effect, which causes climate change. However, many other gases also play an important role in contributing to climate change, for example CH4 (methane) or NO2 (nitrous oxide). CO2e is used as a standard unit that accounts for all greenhouse gases. Each greenhouse gas is expressed as the amount of CO2 that would functionally cause the same level of global warming when emitted into the atmosphere. For example, if 1 kg of gas X were 10 times more harmful in terms of the greenhouse effect than 1 kg of CO2, then its emissions of this gas would be expressed as 10 kg of CO2e.
What does 'relative reduction' mean?
When calculating the emissions saved by the activities of your initiative, the relative reduction is presented. This is the percentage of emissions reduction your initiative has achieved in relation to the baseline scenario. For example, if the baseline emissions amounted to 100 kg of CO2e and your activity presented 70 kg of CO2e of emissions, then the relative reduction achieved would be 30%.
Can I use the results obtained through this tool?
You may use the results obtained from this tool, e.g. to apply for funding for your initiative. Please refer to the online tool and its documentation material.
Where can I find more information?
You can find the methods behind the calculations of the tool here. The methods have been applied to over 50 community-based sustainability initiatives across Europe. The results for these can be found here.
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