Did you know that you’re producing emissions without even realising? According to data, a British citizen releases more carbon dioxide in a fortnight than some people do in some African countries across an entire year – and a lot of the causes are things that wouldn’t even cross our minds.

Although 100 companies are responsible for 71% of global emissions, it is important to understand how our actions affect the environment, particularly in high-carbon lifestyles. While we may do things like limit our mileage and purchase an electric car, there are everyday activities that can produce the same amount of carbon dioxide as a long-haul road trip every single day.

GoodBye Car researched the carbon footprint of everyday activities to find out just exactly how much CO2 everyday activities release and what the equivalent would be in driving miles.

A roast dinner produces more CO2 than commuting to and from work
It turns out that one of the nation’s favourite meals is the most unfriendly to the environment. The staple roast dinner produces just over 28,000g of carbon dioxide while cooking beef, potatoes, broccoli, carrots, and eggs, flour, and milk for the Yorkshire puddings. On average, driving one mile releases 228g of CO2 which makes cooking a roast dinner every Sunday the equivalent of driving 123 miles once a week!

Another UK dish, the English breakfast, has topped the table, producing on average a total of 5,747g of CO2 for bacon, sausages, bread, beans, potatoes, mushrooms, eggs and tomatoes – this would be the same as driving 25 miles. Switching to a vegetarian sausage could reduce this meal’s carbon footprint by 51%.

Individual internet activity has some of the lowest CO2 emissions
Making a card payment has the lowest carbon footprint at 4g of CO2 per payment which is the same as travelling 0.2 miles. However, there were 1.9 billion debit card transactions made in the UK in October 2021 alone. This created around 76 billion grams of carbon emissions each month.

Other internet activities that are equivalent to driving one mile or less each include:

Sending a selfie
Streaming Netflix for one hour
Scrolling Instagram for half an hour