FAQ

By clicking on 'Start my test' at the top right, you will access a form that allows you to assess your carbon footprint by answering a series of questions about your habits.

In other words, how is it that what I eat or what I throw away emits greenhouse gases (GHGs)? Everything we consume, use and then throw away requires materials and energy. This applies to the production, use and end-of-life phases of the good or service. So, all our activities contribute to greenhouse gas emissions. Some a great deal, others very little. Eating a kilo of potatoes, driving a car 10,000 km, watching a streaming video... all emit greenhouse gases, but obviously in very different proportions. And we don't always have these figures in our heads.
To estimate our own contribution to global warming (our 'climate impact'), we usually calculate our individual carbon footprint.

To find out how much each of our actions emits, we rely as soon as we can on the various databases relevant to Switzerland and Geneva in particular. These databases contain hundreds of 'emission factors' derived from life-cycle analyses that enable us to estimate the quantity of greenhouse gases emitted per kilometer driven, per kilogram of meat consumed, per kWh consumed by a TV, etc. In this way, the climate impact of each of our actions can be 'translated' into greenhouse gas emissions. The aim of this calculator is to highlight and understand these figures to simply evaluate our lifestyle in order to identify what contributes more or less to our carbon footprint.

You are currently using the Geneva version of the calculator developed by ADEME. It is based on the French version for the calculation methodology, with an adaptation to the Geneva context. The emissions factors, as well as the content and references, have been adjusted to ensure that the calculation is as close as possible to Geneva's reality. This version, specially configured for Geneva, is the result of a collaboration between the State of Geneva, the City of Geneva and 2050Today.
Everyone is free to use the calculator and answer the questions, but the results will be representative of the impact of a person living in the canton.
Why is adaptation to the territorial context important? Some of the parameters of the carbon footprint model, in particular the footprint of the electricity mix (in gCO₂ₑ/kWh), which takes account of the ways in which electricity is produced (hydro, solar, coal, nuclear, etc.), have a significant influence on the final result, which will therefore not be the same in Geneva, Belgium, Congo, Quebec, Algeria or elsewhere.

Nos Gestes Climat is an individual carbon footprint calculator.
However, certain questions can lead to confusion (such as the number of people living in your home or the average number of passengers in your car). These questions are there so that we can bring a wider impact down to the individual level.
For some consumer goods, this distinction is not always clear.
Within a household, it is very difficult to distinguish between certain goods and services used for personal consumption and others that can be shared (HiFi or IT equipment, tools, etc.).

For each of them, we have therefore chosen between personal and shared items (the television is shared, the computer is personal). If the distinction isn't the same for you, don't worry: these items account for very little of your final footprint.

It's a complicated subject, to say the least!
Nos Gestes Climat is an individual footprint calculator.
We consider that every human being, child or adult, has their own footprint.
Of course, a child does not choose to be born, and somewhere one or two adults have decided to bring a new individual into the world, who will have a carbon footprint. We could say that we should attribute it to them. But for how long? Don't attribute your footprint to your parents!

We are well aware that the Nos Gestes Climat approach is incomplete when it comes to meeting the challenges we face.
Climate change is just one of the nine planetary limits that we are threatening (or have already exceeded) with our lifestyles.
The 'carbon' approach must therefore complement the eight other limits: the erosion of biodiversity, the disruption of the biogeochemical cycles of nitrogen and phosphorus, changes in land use, the acidification of the oceans, the global use of water, the depletion of the ozone layer, the introduction of new entities into the environment (chemical pollution) and the increase in aerosols in the atmosphere.

Fortunately, many of the goods we use on a daily basis are intended to last for several years. To represent this use, we depreciate (in the same way that an accountant depreciates a purchase of goods) the carbon impact of some of your goods over several years.
Cars are depreciated using a non-linear function, with the first few years 'weighing' more than the following years in terms of carbon footprint, to reflect the rapid depreciation of a vehicle after purchase, and to discourage the purchase of new vehicles.
All other tangible assets (small equipment, other vehicles, digital equipment, household appliances, etc.) are depreciated on a straight-line basis over their estimated useful lives. For example, a tumble dryer has a lifespan of 10 years, so 1/10th of its construction footprint is considered each year.

This is a very complex subject, on several levels.
First, there is the problem of double counting. Emissions from fossil fuels financed by banks are counted for those who use them. Counting the footprint of savings therefore means counting twice the consumption linked to what those savings have financed.
To illustrate, your bank may be financing the extraction of oil off the coast of Siberia, but this oil is being extracted so that someone, somewhere, can drive 10km, heat a house or produce plastic. The model attributes these emissions to the consumption of cars, housing and plastic. There is also the difficulty of accounting for the carbon footprint of savings.
Initiatives exist in Switzerland, such as the climate rating of pension funds produced by the Climate Alliance, but there is currently no consensus on the calculation methods and the scope to be taken into account.

For these two reasons, the footprint of your savings is not currently assessed as part of Nos Gestes Climat.
Nevertheless, we are aware that we are surely missing our educational objective here: it's a subject that still gets (too) little attention, and one about which citizens deserve to be informed. So, we're still thinking about adding an 'individual savings' component to the calculator.

If your footprint is around 4 or 5 tons, you've already come a long way.
It's a question of individual progress towards lifestyles that emit less greenhouse gas, but it's also essential that changes take place on a wider scale to facilitate the emergence of these lifestyles.
For example, a local authority in which a large number of residents take up cycling (or another low-carbon mode) will encourage its elected representatives to promote new infrastructure and appropriate policies, which in turn will help the next generation to take up cycling, and so on!
This target of less than 2 tons is challenging, but it is what we must collectively achieve as soon as possible, and by 2050 at the latest, with steady progress each year, in order to limit global warming to +2°C. We would even need to reach less than 1 ton to meet the most ambitious goal of the Paris Agreement, which is to limit global warming to +1.5°C. This "climate budget" is not a political matter, but stems from the planetary limits identified by climate science. It is factual and non-negotiable, unless we want to expose ourselves to the disastrous consequences associated with it and widely described in the IPCC reports.

Today, it's difficult to imagine a low-carbon future. It is still the opposite of what we know, where 80% of the energy consumed is based on the use of fossil fuels. This transition to a low-carbon world implies a drastic change in our production and consumption patterns if we are to avoid continuing to pay the price, both individually and collectively.
How can we imagine a "low-carbon life", with an annual footprint of 1 ton, when societal services already burden us with 1.5 tons? Through collective action and political involvement, the aim is to ensure that the impact of these societal services also diminishes over time, which should make the objective more attainable.
On the other hand... Walking in nature, playing music, cycling, sailing, taking advantage of train services throughout the country, spending time with loved ones, celebrating, reading, chatting, growing vegetables, learning to cook... can all be low-carbon activities. A low-carbon life is therefore already part of our experiences, which are not necessarily reflected in an individual carbon footprint. By identifying and limiting high-emission activities, we are inventing the low-carbon world we need to achieve.

The footprint displayed at the start of the test, before you have answered the questions, should be seen as a starting point. Throughout the simulator, you can compare the footprint of your consumption items (car kilometers, heating, etc.) with values that are intended to be as close as possible to the Swiss or Geneva averages.
This starting point is different from the average per capita in Switzerland estimated by the Confederation in 2020 (12 tCO₂eq/capita), and is also different from the averages calculated by the Canton of Geneva in 2012 (11 tCO₂eq/capita) or by the City of Geneva in 2021 (13 tCO₂eq/capita).
Beyond the obvious temporal and geographical discrepancies, the divergences between the starting point proposed in this test and the territorial estimates mentioned above can be explained by different methodological choices at two levels:
Top-down: the per capita averages calculated by the Confederation, the Canton and the City are based on a "macro" territorial approach, integrating all economic activities. These estimates take into account both consumer activities (goods, services, energy, etc.) and productive processes located within the analysis perimeter (watchmaking, consultancy activities, agriculture, etc.). This approach makes it possible to obtain a total estimate for an area, and then to obtain an average value per inhabitant by dividing the total volume of emissions by the population of the area in question. The approach followed in this calculator is more of a "micro" type, based on the individual behaviors declared by each person (the calculator also includes a per capita estimate of the societal services from which we all benefit more or less directly).

Bottom-up: the calculator proposes adding, item by item, the footprints of all our actual and "significant" consumption (i.e. representing the vast majority of an individual's carbon footprint). The model is not exhaustive, the challenge being to strike the right balance between accuracy/completeness and complexity/length of test.

This item represents the carbon footprint of Geneva's public services on an individual scale. In other words, the impact of all these services is spread across all the residents of Geneva. So, in a way, everyone is 'doing their bit', for a number of reasons. Firstly, it is extremely rare, if not almost impossible, to live without ever using a single public service. Whether we're talking about health services, improved roads, education or, more generally, anything else funded by taxes, everyone benefits from public services.
Secondly, trying to account for how much of a public service an individual uses 'for real' is not currently possible with the data we have on the footprint of this sector.

It can be frustrating to see impacts on which we have no direct control over. But that's the whole point of transition in the broadest sense. This transition cannot be thought of only on an individual scale. It is a necessary but not sufficient condition for a more global transition on the scale of our society. This means playing with indirect levers for action (voting, getting involved in associations, raising awareness in the community, challenging elected representatives, etc.). And that's the whole point of Nos Gestes Climat! Working to raise awareness of the issues!

No.
Nos Gestes Climat is dedicated to assessing individual carbon footprints. The journeys you make in the course of your work (such as delivering a customer, going to a meeting, flying to attend a 3-day seminar, etc.) do not have to be taken into account when you answer the calculator's questions.
These journeys, which come under the heading of professional activity, will be included in the carbon footprint of your organisation (company, local authority, association, etc.). However, you will be asked about regular home-to-work journeys. Why should I do this? Because, personally, you have control over the type of transport you choose to use and where you live. However, the reality is often quite different, and far be it from us to blame people whose daily mobility is centred around the car because they live a long way from their place of work. Even if certain choices can be questioned, many of us are in fact forced to use the private car because there are no serious alternatives available (public transport, teleworking, carpooling, etc.).

The difference in footprint between the different engines lies in the use of the vehicle via its consumption (fuel or electricity) but above all in the associated manufacturing for each size of vehicle. We use the Mobitool database, which provides a direct footprint per kilometer, including the manufacture and use of the vehicle.

It is not possible to provide a single answer on the impact of organic production in terms of GHG emissions, given the wide diversity of products and production methods, whether conventional or organic.
Of course, this is no reason not to eat organic. This is a bias in our calculator. It only looks at carbon emissions.
And yet, from soil and groundwater pollution to loss of biodiversity and the health of farmers, eating organic food considerably reduces many other environmental impacts, while also reducing the risks to our health. We're talking here about environmental issues in general, and we need to take a step back from our calculation, which focuses 100% on greenhouse gases.

Nos Gestes Climat is first and foremost a tool designed for the general public. That's why we wanted to limit the number of questions to the aspects of our food that we know are the most important (and have the greatest impact).
We know that there is a lot missing from the current model. From self-produced food (chickens, vegetable gardens, etc.) to insect-based dishes, the diversity of food practices is almost infinite! Our tool is freely accessible and we welcome contributions from everyone. So don't hesitate to send us your suggestions for improvement if you feel there's something missing from the model.

Unless you have your own source of electricity (photovoltaic panels), the Vitale Vert electricity supplied by SIG cannot be delivered to you without the existence of the Swiss electricity grid, a single network that integrates different electricity productions (hydro, solar, coal, nuclear, etc.) and is shared by everyone.
Nos Gestes Climat pour Genève therefore uses the emission factor of the Swiss grid, taking into account Geneva's renewable energy production

The impact of digital technology lies mainly in the production of devices. Assessing the digital impact of 'dematerialized' content (streaming, videoconferencing, cloud storage, emailing, etc.) is still a subject of work among technical and institutional players.
Our best estimate of the digital footprint is based on data from the Base Carbone®, but some information or questions may be missing.

This is a comment that is often made when it comes to assessing our carbon footprint. The carbon weight of every product, good and service we consume does not yet exist, so we have to approximate this impact. Here we have to strike a balance between simplicity and precision. As Nos Gestes Climat is a calculator for the general public, we have opted for simplicity. This approximation is made by major product family. More specifically, the calculator is based on monetary ratios (X g of CO₂ₑ are emitted for Y CHF of products purchased), by type of product, given by the ADEME's Base Carbone®. These monetary ratios make it possible to estimate the carbon content of a product or service purchased from its price. To do this, a standard "average" product is considered. It does not take into account the specific features of less impacting products (second-hand, sustainable, eco-designed, etc.), which tends to increase the final footprint. We have chosen to focus these questions on newly purchased products because the difference in impact with second-hand products is very significant. The production phase of the product, which very often represents the majority of impacts, is not taken into account for second-hand products. As for the differences in impact between new products (typically between fast-fashion jeans and eco-designed jeans), Nos Gestes Climat has once again chosen to keep things simple.