Determining your personal resource consumption and classifying its impact on the environment and climate - calculating your own CO2 footprint makes sense. It indicates how much greenhouse gas emissions a person causes through their lifestyle over a certain period of time. Various areas of life are taken into account, such as living, mobility, nutrition and consumer behavior. Currently, only 22 percent of German citizens know their personal CO2 footprint. This is according to a representative survey by Ipsos, commissioned by the TÜV association, among 1,000 people aged 16 and over. Accordingly, younger people are more likely to think about their carbon footprint than older people: the proportion is highest among people aged 30 to 39 at 35 percent and lowest in the generation over 60, at just 13 percent. The share of informed people in large cities or among respondents with high education is slightly higher than average (27 percent each). “Knowing your own CO2 footprint is an important first step in reducing your own CO2 emissions,” says Juliane Petrich, responsible for policy and sustainability at TÜV. "Everyone can make a small contribution to protecting the environment and climate through their individual lifestyle and consumer behavior." So-called CO2 or climate calculators help classify results and identify savings opportunities. A benchmark for comparison is, for example, the average CO2 footprint of a household or person in Germany. The TÜV association provides tips on how consumers can determine their personal CO2 balance as easily as possible. (TÜV Association e. V.)