On this page you will find information about an 'Event Travel Carbon Estimator Tool', created by Dr. Matt Dolf. This tool is intended to assist with estimating the carbon footprint of participant travel to events. It is also useful as a teaching tool for high school or postsecondary courses to understand carbon footprinting methodology. While initially developed for sports events, it can be adapted for use with any type of event or activity involving travel - music festival, conferences, commuting to school or work, etc.
There are two options for calculating your carbon footprint:
1) the Estimator Tool lets you quickly input the number of people coming from approximate distances to get a snapshot. You can also adjust the underlying assumptions. This approach is especially helpful to estimate impacts early in the event planning cycle and then refine assumptions and results along the way.
2) the Data Tool lets you input data for individual participants by entering travel mode, distance, and occupancy rates. This is a great way to increase the accuracy of your carbon footprint if you can collect this data from participants.
UBC's Centre for Sport & Sustainability hosted an event that featured a presentation of this tool by Dr. Matt Dolf, accompanied by a panel discussion about the tool and about the sustainability of sport events more generally. We would recommend viewing Dr. Dolf's talk and the rich discussion that followed, as a companion to experimenting with this tool.
Here is the tool, embedded for your use. You can toggle whether your calculations appear in kilograms or tonnes. Click the bottom right corner to see the full size workbook. You can also download the tool into Excel by clicking the download icon on the bottom right (i.e., the picture of a file folder with an arrow pointing down). The FAQ sheet provides additional context and options for using this tool.
Units in kilograms:
Units in tonnes:
Dr. Matt Dolf, Director, UBC Wellbeing -- and Creator of Event Travel Carbon Estimator Tool
Matt has long been a passionate researcher and advocate of deepening our understanding of sport as a vehicle for positive change. He is co-creator of the Sport & Sustainability Event Toolkit; this was the first sustainability management guidance document for sports events and has been used by the International Olympic Committee and the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games.