Carbon Calculator Review: GreenAsia

www.thegreenasiagroup.com

Whoo, that took me a long time. Not to do the calculation, but since the last review. But here it is. :)

My carbon footprint: 6.72 tCO2 per year.

Pros:

1) Slightly more adjusted in the Asian context. It is afterall 'GreenASIA'. And the drop down includes Malaysia. Which is nice to know that we exist :)

2) The drop down menus are straight forward. Easy to understand.

3) Energy choices have got different measurements. Which makes it easier to input since not all of us use kWh or kgs or liters etc.

4) It immediately shows the calculations upon your entry. So you can tell how much your carbon input is based on what you just entered.

5) You can input up to three vehicles. And the drop down's very easy, no need to look for your car type in a long list. They've got a range of type of vehicle and engine sizes (e.g. motorcycle, small petrol car (<1.4>

6) Includes waste as a separate input

7) You can immediately purchase carbon offsets from them upon completion of calculation. One choice of where the funds goes to is a Malaysian paper recycling facility which uses natural gas as opposed to oil fired boilers or electricity from the national grid.

Cons:

1) Would prefer if a little elaboration or those question mark thingies to give examples of what sort of energy applies to which domestic use. For blur people like myself, I use gas tank for cooking. Is that natural gas? Or is that LPG? It would be good to have a little assistance there.

2) Public transportation's distance calculation's a little iffy. I wish they would have distances calculator for us. So, we waste less time googling how far our travelled distances are. Can estimatelah... but still... haiya...

3) No mention of other lifestyle habits that may contribute to carbon - e.g. choice of food, shopping habits, etc.

4) No benchmark to compare.

Product Review: Earth Choice Laundry Liquid

Price : RM12.50 per liter (at 1/3 cup - 80ml per 'heavy' load, it works out to RM1.25 per topload)

Claims : Post-consumer recycled PET packaging, No animal testing or ingredients, Low chemical formula, Australian owned and made, Phosphate free, Biodegradable, "Quality Products That Don't Cost the Earth"

Ingredients : Water, Alkyl polyglycosides, Potassium oleate, Sodium coco fatty alcohol sulfate, Sodium carbonate, Sodium citrate, Fragrance, Hydroxymethyl ureide derivatives, CI 61585

My thoughts: 

Price & packaging

Okay, at RM12.50 per bottle of 1 liter, I thought it was on the ok priced side when I compared it to an equivalent that I would buy. It's nice to know the packaging's made from recycled materials. However, I find the

 sticker's unnecessary. Text is clear and easy to read and understand. The ingredients also clearly listed. Gives fairly clear instructions on how much to use. Cap could've been made more 'measure' friendly. I had to use a baking cup to measure 1/3 cup. But then again, I think the next time, I could just follow my MiL's advise, 2 glug-glugs is fine. 

I'll need to check on the ingredients. I've not had much reading on some of them and will make a more informed review based on that in the future. 

Washing

My first load with this was a white load. I didn't add anything to the wash except the recommended dose. I specifically took a photo of my 2.5 yr old daughter's shirt after a long day out and about with stains from ice lollies, soup, little bits of grease from playground floors, and just general stains. Also noted some blood on one of my articles of clothing. I put it into my top loading machine, set it to soak 1 hour, and normal wash. 

After years of using fragrance free/minimal products in my laundry, the scent of this came across to me as slightly overwhelming. That said, it's still a whole lot milder than common brands which I find choking. 

My daughter's shirt came out clean. The yellow from the ice lollly came off ok. General stains came off ok too. Not super white. But it wasn't all that clean to begin with. To be super clean, I've got to scrub. But me not super mom. To see for yourself, see photo comparison. The blood came out generally but still stained. Not too happy about that though. 

My cloth napkins didn't come out too clean. They usually come out a whole lot cleaner. Other stuff which didn't need too much cleaning came out ok. I didn't smell BO on the clothes or anything, but the fragrance probably did away with that. 

Overall, so far I'm not wonderfully impressed. However, I AM comparing it to my normal detergent which does use enzymes which would work on all that I've mentioned. And this detergent does actually mention cleaning without the use of enzymes... (which I gathered is not that great for sensitive skins, like babies' bums for instance). But I really would prefer if they didn't add the fragrance. Kinda ironic since they also mentioned 'without the use of heavy fragrances'. Guess it depends on whose nose.

For the next wash though, I'm going to try adding baking soda and the next, hydrogen peroxide. See how it fares then. I'll update. 

I don't normally care too much for visual cleanliness, if it doesn't harm me too much, it should be ok. Just wear darker clotheslah.

Carbon Calculator Review - carbonfootprint

www.carbonfootprint.com

The very first carbon calculator I used. Also the first one on Google's list. Well, here it is. My first review. It'll need working on. But let's start somewhere.

My foot print is 8.68. 

Country average is 7.00 tonnes. 

Average worldwide footprint is 4.00 tonnes.

The worldwide targe to combat climate change is 2 tonnes. 

Wow.

Pros: 

1) It's got a 'save' function. Which will technically enable you to monitor your footprint. 

2) Car selection range is quite extensive. I found my little Kelisa in it. Which is a relief. 

3) Has a wide selection of 'other' fuel that maybe people other than me use. Like for boats, barbeque (coal), things like that.

4) Public transport selections are good too. Regular buses, long distance buses (coach), national rail, international rail, tram (not quite for us, but no harm I suppose), tube and even taxis. I like the taxis one. 

5) Incorporates daily lifestyle choices like food, recreation and things like that into the calculator. 

6) You can add it to your own website. 

Cons: 

 

1) Has selections  like use of wooden pellets (for heating?), that don't apply to us. But then again, if you use it, it doesn't contribute to your carbon calculations. Can actually think of that as an upside. 

2) Flight carbon calculator only has capacity for up to 5 flight itineries. Definitely not for frequent flyers. Then again, I think frequent flyers don't even dare to come close to the calculator. 

3) Doesn't mention too much about waste. It's incorporated into the lifestyle (secondary) option.

4) Incorporates daily lifestyle choices into the calculator, which I find is very vague and can really really bump up your footprint size.