What is my pet's carbon footprint?

Example pet profiles

How does your pet's pawprint compare to emissions created by other cats and dogs?

600kgs/yr

An average 5kg cat's total CO2 footprint per year, when they eat premium poultry dry or wet food, and do not attend daycare. Their owners spend £250 per year on veterinary care costs and £250 on accessories.

900kgs/yr

An average 7kg dog's total CO2 footprint per year, when they eat mixed meat premium dry and wet food, visit a dog walker twice a week, and stay in kennels two weeks per year. Their owners spend £500 at the vets, and £500 on accessories annually.

1,200kgs/yr

An average 20kg dog's total CO2 footprint per year, when they eat a standard dry food diet, visit a dog walker twice a week, and stay in kennels two weeks per year. Their owners spend £500 at the vets, and £500 on accessories annually.

12,500kgs/yr

An average 70kg dog's total CO2 footprint per year, when they eat raw, mixed meats diet, visit a dog walker twice a week, and stay in kennels two weeks per year. Their owners spend £500 at the vets, and £500 on accessories annually.

Footprints and pawprints compared

Now you know much carbon pets can produce, but how does it compare to our output as humans?

2,806kg

CO2 emitted by the heating the average UK home in a year (ONS, 2021)

Cartoon dog balancing the globe on his nose

173kg

CO2 emitted per 50L tank of petrol. We emit 400kgCO2e/year driving a dog 60 minutes per week to go for a walk (Supercritical, 2022)

40kg

CO2 emitted by leaving appliances on standby (Energy Saving Trust, 2022)

30-60kg

CO2 emitted by running the dishwasher (Energy Saving Trust, 2022)

A cat in front of a happiness speedometer

280kg

CO2 emitted cooking the UK average Christmas meal (Supercritical, 2022)

How to reduce a pet's carbon impact

We asked Supercritical how pet parents can reduce their emissions.

Avoid beef mince or steak in raw diet - choose poultry and organ meats instead.

Dry food is made out of off-cuts, organ meats and other food byproducts and is therefore quite eco-friendly (as it doesn’t lead to increased demand for livestock production).

Insect and vegetable-protein-based food is also a good choice for a dog.

Drive less by choosing closer walks or daycare. If you can, drive your pet in an electric car (but avoid buying a newer, bigger car because you have a dog - best to make good use of the car you already have)

Buy second-hand accessories or make re-purpose household and clothing items. For example knotting together old single socks to make a ball or chewing toy, get creative!

We know it's not always easy to change your pet's diet or where you walk them, the most important thing is that your pet is happy and healthy.

Some pet parents might also consider paying to offset their cat or dog's emissions or even reducing their own carbon output to cover what their pet produces.

If these tips aren't right for you and your pet, there are other ways to offset your carbon emissions around the house too.

The ManyPets pawprint

In 2022, we partnered with carbon measurement, reduction and removal experts, Supercritical, as part of our mission to be a carbon-neutral pet insurance provider. Along with looking at our business's emissions, we created a carbon calculator to help pet parents understand how much carbon their pets produce.

How Supercritical built the calculator

Supercritical monitors leading research to specialise in carbon accounting calculating using The Greenhouse Gas Protocol requirements. Its team of consultants is led by food sustainability expert Dr Bojana Bajzelj. They used a number of existing studies that have estimated emissions from pet food, plastic production in pet accessories, vet care and transporting pets. For the full methodology, scroll down to the FAQs.

A world for humans and pets

We want to ensure the planet can support humans and pets for years to come. And a recent survey we conducted shows many of you feel the same way.

More than half of pet parents told us slowing climate change is very important to them and a third are already changing how they care for their pet to reduce their emissions.

Our calculator helps pet parents understand their cat's or dog's emissions. It's not designed to make you anxious or feel ashamed.

We believe one of the first steps in tackling climate change is having the right knowledge to do it. Everyone can play a part but we know companies and governments have a huge responsibility and it shouldn't feel like it's just down to individuals.

Take the hot air out of pet care

Our contributions to climate change can be measured right down to the individual appliance. What's more puzzling, however, is how our lifestyles, and caring for our families, directly affect natural ecosystems.

In the grand scheme of things, your pet's CO2 emissions will be small. And, it's hard to imagine that owning a dog or cat would cause the climate impacts we see on the news, like rising sea levels.

We have to zoom out a bit and look at the emissions caused by pet ownership globally, and the resources we collectively access to care for our furry friends, that it becomes a more pressing issue.

Greenhouse gas emitters can be found in the manufacturing and production industries making the food and products we use to care for pets. Not forgetting that every time we hop in the car to visit the vet, drop them off at daycare and visit new places to walk, it has an effect too.

All that consumption adds up to a pet's carbon pawprint.

At ManyPets, we're always looking for new ways to support our pet parents. We believe that protecting the planet shouldn't mean compromising your pet's care, or substituting the things that make them happy and healthy.

However, we also believe in a clean and safe future for pets and their parents. The quality of our future relies on investment from governments and businesses to create carbon offsets - swapping damaging processes, for sustainable ones. We're hoping that the data from our calculator will reveal how shopping and caring for our pets has a hand in climate change, and will support positive decision-making by the people who can make a big difference to the health of the planet.

The ManyPets carbon pawprint calculator measures your individual use of energy. It's the only calculator that combines information about what they eat, their travel, and the products they consume.

Your pet's ecological footprint considers their impact on the local environment and wildlife. It incorporates the impacts of dog waste which can filter into local streams and water cycle, affecting the ecosystem balance.

Get a deeper understanding of your relationship with the planet and help us to pave the way for a safer planet for pets and their parents in the future by calculating your pet's carbon pawprint.

The ManyPets UK climate report

In November 2022, we asked 2,402 people a series of questions about pet ownership and climate change.

51%

of pet parents say slowing climate change is very important.

42%

of pet parents thought that global pet ownership contributes to carbon emissions 'to some extent'.

34%

of pet parents are already buying pet products produced through climate-friendly processes to offset their carbon emissions.

35%

of pet parents are going to switch to less meaty food over the next year to offset their carbon emissions.

Frequently asked questions about pet carbon

Your pet's carbon pawprint was calculated using the Supercritical carbon emissions database, an accurate and up-to-date record of carbon emissions, spanning all your pet's wants and needs.

The calculator considers one year of an adult pet's life (not including the puppy / kitten phase). The figures within the calculator are approximates based on the likely average. Food will have a large impact on the pet's footprint.

The calculator is partly based on this study estimating standard dried pet food and animal by-product emissions. Alongside this raw food (BARF and PMR average) and premium wet food and alternative food (insect and vegetable protein-based) are calculated based on compositions from popular brands and a comprehensive study of food footprints.

For veterinary emissions, the calculator uses the EEIO model value.

For the calculation of pet accessories (beds, collars, leads, toys etc) an average emissions factor for textiles, plastics and manufactured goods were used from EEIO DEFRA 2014 (adjusted for inflation).

Transport for dog walks/care was calculated assuming an average car speed of 25mph given the likely stop-start nature and waste has also been considered, although not as an input parameter.

Every action we take has an environmental impact. If you would like to try and reduce your carbon footprint and pawprint, it can be as simple as switching to low-carbon options. Your first step might be to make a list of all the items you use to care for your pet and explore the environmentally-friendly swaps you could make, which would be suitable and safe for your pet.

In November 2022, we asked our pet parents what purchase decisions they commonly make specifically to fight climate change:

33.5% said they would buy pet products produced through climate friendly processes
33.8% wanted to switch to less meaty heavy food
14.4% said that would reduce the days their pet is taken to daycare
31.9% wanted to reduce the number of days the took their pet in the car
Finally, 51.4% said they would limit their own carbon footprint

On average, dogs will have lower footprint than humans.

While they eat predominantly meat - which is disproportionately high in impact - humans eat more food overall.

Also, much of dog food is made from by-products of food produced for human consumption, for example organ meats that could otherwise be wasted as they are not as popular in our diets as muscle meat. Having said that, larger dogs fed raw diet that ‘competes’ with food for humans can have a footprint larger than some people.

Other activities and needs also contribute to carbon footprint. For example travel, electricity use, heating, generating waste, like dog poo, cat poo and also cat litter, and buying pet products. These are mostly for us, but having a dog can make us travel more (e.g. drive to a dog-walking area), buy more stuff (accessories) and create more waste