Every year, my list of New Year’s resolutions is about as long as my arm and every year, reducing my impact on the environment features on it.

From “going zero waste” to “not taking the plane”, I am full of good intentions, but, without a plan, I end up not meeting my goals when the end of the year comes around.

Covering climate change and the environment as a journalist, I write about reducing carbon footprints and systemic change, and like to shine a light on solutions that exist.

And while I have been trying to live an environmentally friendlier life for some time, I still buy clothes from fast fashion stores, sometimes blindly pick up food at the supermarket and, with my chocolate addiction, probably contribute a chunk to deforestation.

Governments and industries could have the biggest impact on Earth’s wellbeing with the right policies, but the dissonance between my lifestyle and my ideals doesn’t sit right with me.

This is why I’m setting out to put my money where my mouth is and see how I can reduce my impact on the environment (while remaining a functioning member of society).

Every month over the course of 2025, I will implement a new habit that brings me closer to my goal of being climate-friendlier. I will report on what went well and what was difficult to change, and hopefully attempt to stack new habits as I go.

How bad is it, doctor?

To get me started on this journey, I wanted to get a sense of how big my carbon footprint is. While there are other metrics to measure impact, for example on biodiversity, CO2 calculators are most readily available.

I used two carbon footprint calculators to determine my impact: the first one, recommended by the EU, is myCO2.com and was developed over five years by consulting company Carbone 4.

This calculator promises to take into account “a complete scope of emissions”, so even emissions related to services and goods. It kindly warned me to “not be surprised if you have a higher footprint than on other calculators.”

The second one, Myimpact.lu, created by the Luxembourg government, has a more general approach to questions, which had me worried the results wouldn’t be very representative of my current efforts.

My personal carbon footprint as estimated by MyCO2.com © Photo credit: Screenshot

MyCO2 estimated my annual footprint to be around 12t CO2 equivalent, lower than the 15.34t average seen in my native Belgium. Phew, I thought to myself, until I realised that, the average annual emissions per person need to come out at less than 2t CO2eq a year to mitigate climate change as much as possible.

In other words, I would need to divide my emissions by six. MyCO2 gave me a target of about 8t for 2030, or an annual 6.6% decrease.

The Luxembourg calculator gave me an estimate of 14t CO2eq, which I included here for transparency’s sake but am trying to ignore because it pains me to see this result.

A breakdown of my emissions © Photo credit: Screenshot

So… what now?

Not using plastic straws and bags is great for the environment – save the turtles! – but what will I need to do to reach the goal I set myself?

Looking at the breakdown provided by MyCO2, my biggest problem areas are

Now, as a tenant, the number of actions I can take are somewhat limited as I don’t have a say in what kind of energy and insulation my landlord picked for the house. I will seek out advice to see what I can do and perhaps my research will prove me wrong and there are some options to improve.

In terms of transport, there is room for improvement. I take the train to work every day and I don’t own a car but I do rent one about three times a month. Although I try to avoid it, I took three return flights last year (two for leisure, one for work).

So, for the first month of this challenge, I will forsake using a car in February.

To make it a bit tougher on myself, as I don’t drive that much to begin with, I have also decided to give up some products that contribute to climate change and deforestation: cocoa, palm oil, coffee and sugar.

I will be back on 28 February to report how I fared and set the next goal for March.

Wish me luck (or participate in the challenge and share your feedback on social media)!

Tracy’s column is published every last Friday of the month. The next instalment will be come out on 28 February.