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Carbon Emission Calculations

felix is certified carbon neutral by the Climate Active initiative.

All carbon emission calculations below have been verified by our carbon emissions partner South Pole.

Close to 1 million Tonnes

Whenever you use your phone data centres and mobile phone towers produce carbon emissions – which contribute to climate change. And together, Aussie mobile users are responsible for close to one million tonnes of CO2 a year!

How did we calculate that:

Measurement: Australian population (millions)
Value: 25.6
Reference: 1

Measurement: Smartphone penetration (percentage)
Value: 72.8
Reference: 2

Measurement: Emissions per smartphone user
Scope 1: 0.01
Scope 2: 29.2
Scope 3: 27.3

Total: kg CO2e per customer /yr = 56.5

Calculation Based on:

  1. Australian Population as at July 2020

  2. Smartphone Penetration in 2020

References:

  1. Australian Population as at July 2020

  2. Smartphone Penetration in 2020

  3. Tables below calculated by Southpole and verified by Climate Active:

Product
Scope 1 per customer = 0.005455041
Scope 2 per customer = 26.45660223
Scope 3 per customer = 24.5414798
Total kg = 51.00353708

Service
Scope 1 per customer = 0.001292255
Scope 2 per customer = 2.75836212
Scope 3 per customer = 2.76559875
Total kg = 5.525253125

Coffee Cup Carbon Emission

From our breakfast, to the tech we use, our daily activities can result in carbon emissions, which contribute to climate change
Total kg CO2e per person/ yr - 39.5

How did we calculate that:

Measurement: Australian working population (millions)
Value: 17
Reference: 1

Measurement: Coffee Emissions (g CO2e)
Value: 672
Reference: 2

Measurement: # takeaway coffee cups used (billion)
Value: 1
Reference: 3

Calculation Based on:
# of takeaway coffee cups thrown away each yr / # of Australians of working age (Most likely to consume coffee) * Emissions of a single takeaway cup of coffee

Source Documents:

  1. Australian Working Population

  2. Southpole supplied coffee emissions

  3. Number of Takeaway Coffee Cups Used By Australians Each Year

Egg Carbon Emission

From our breakfast, to the tech we use, our daily activities can result in carbon emissions, which contribute to climate change.
Total kg CO2e per person/ yr = 55.59

How did we calculate that:

Measurement: # of eggs eaten per year by average adult (each)
Value: 300
Reference: 1

Measurement: Power used to cook an egg (kWh)
Value: 0.09
Reference: 2

Measurement: Emissions per kWh (kg CO2e)
Value: 0.88
Reference: 3

Measurement: Emissions produced from a free range egg (kg CO2e)
Value: 1.6
Reference: 4

Measurement: Weight of average egg (g)
Value: 70
Reference: 5

Calculation Based on:
Eggs:
There are 1.6kg of CO2e / kg of free range eggs. Avg egg is 70g, that's 0.112 kgCO2e for a single free range egg.

Cooking:
Assuming an electric cooktop, using a large 1100 W burner for 5mins - the power used would be (1100 W) * (5/60 h) /1000 = 0.0917 kWh.
The government electricity EF average for Australia: 0.88 kgCO2e/kWh. So the emissions are 0.0917*0.88 = 0.0733 kg

Source Documents:

  1. CSIRO Egg Consumption

  2. Southpole (carbon emissions partner) advised average electricity usage for a duration of 5minutes cooking time

  3. Australian Government, Dept of Environment and Energy, Australian Government National Greenhouse Account factors, Table 44 , August 2019

  4. Australian Egg Corporation Limited, Environmental Assessment of an Egg Production Supply Chain using Life Cycle Assessment, Final Report, Dec 2011.

  5. Egg weight

Car Carbon Emission

Every year the phone towers and data centers that power our phone plans emit close to 1M Tonne of CO2.....that's the same amount of carbon in a year as 386,000 passenger cars driving on the road the whole year.

How did we calculate that:

Measurement: Close to 1 million t CO2e/yr are emitted by Australian mobile services (kg CO2/yr )
Value: 1056250000

Measurement: Car average commute (kg CO2e/day)
Value: 7.1
Reference: 1,2,3

Measurement: Days in a year
Value: 365

Measurement: Car average commute (kg CO2e/year)
Value: 407,582,48

Calculation Based on:

  1. Based on average commute distance of 16km each way (from ABS 2016), or 32km per day

  2. Assuming 20 working days per month, assuming driving an average-sized petrol car

  3. Based on 0.222 kgCO2e/km average petrol car emission factor (from UK Government DBEIS 2020)

Source Documents:
Commuting distance for Australia
Greenhouse gas reporting: conversion factors 2020