Your home's carbon footprint.

A typical 2–3 person Kiwi home emits around 4–6 tonnes of CO₂-equivalent per year directly (power, gas, transport, hot water, cooking) and 8–12 tonnes once flights, food and consumer goods are included. The Paris-aligned 2030 target is roughly 2 tonnes per person per year, so most NZ households need to cut about half. The calculator above shows your own number against both benchmarks.

Yes, very meaningfully — especially if you're switching from gas, LPG, wood or resistive electric. NZ's grid runs at about 97 g CO₂ per kWh (one of the cleanest in the world) and a heat pump delivers 3–4 kWh of heat for every 1 kWh of power, so a typical gas-to-heat-pump switch saves 500–800 kg CO₂ per year. Switching from old resistive heating saves 200–400 kg by virtue of efficiency alone.

We use 97 g CO₂e per kWh (delivered), based on MBIE's most recent annual generation mix — about 60% hydro, 18% geothermal, 11% wind, plus small amounts of solar, gas and (occasional dry-year) coal. Marginal emissions during peak demand are higher (~150–200 g) because gas peakers fire up, which is why time-of-use shifting matters more than its kWh weight suggests.

To stay within 1.5°C of warming, every person on Earth needs to be at roughly 2 tonnes CO₂e per year by 2030 and ~0.7 tonnes by 2050. That's the benchmark we show on the second comparison bar. Most Kiwi households are 2–4× over it today, so the actions list above is sequenced to deliver the biggest tonnes-per-dollar reductions first.

For many Kiwi households, yes. A single return long-haul flight (Auckland–London, Auckland–Los Angeles) is around 6 tonnes CO₂ per economy seat — more than a typical household's entire annual home-energy footprint. One long-haul return flight a year often dwarfs everything else on the list. The calculator includes flights so you can see this honestly.