About

FutureFit is a simple yet powerful way for you to engage with climate change. FutureFit provides a snapshot of your impact on the planet, and helps you make positive changes in the way you live to help reduce your personal carbon footprint.

We’ll ask some quick questions about your lifestyle to get a snapshot your carbon footprint, and you can delve even deeper for a more accurate result.

We’ll help you set some specific goals and actions, then we’ll stay with you, encouraging and reminding you along the way.

This is a place where you can help create momentum, get others on board, set up your own teams, and share your progress with others.

Using FutureFit empowers kiwis to meet our emissions reduction targets, to have a lighter impact on papatūānuku.

What is a Carbon Footprint?

A carbon footprint is used as an estimate of the impact of a person’s lifestyle on climate change. It’s made up of the emissions associated with your lifestyle and daily activities, like how you get around, where you travel to, how you power your home, what you choose to eat, and what you buy, over a year.

FutureFit calculates the tonnes of carbon associated with your lifestyle, and is represented as your personal carbon footprint. It does that by using a mix of New Zealand-based emission data, some initial assumptions about national household spend on different products and services, and personal information you provide when answering the FutureFit questions.

Your carbon footprint is calculated by estimating the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions for each lifestyle activity, as well as five other greenhouse gasses which contribute to warming the planet. Those include methane, nitrous oxide and hydroflourocarbons.

All these emissions are added together, and expressed as a single number in terms of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2-e).

CO2-e is measured in either kilograms or tonnes, and is calculated by multiplying the emissions of each of the six greenhouse gases by its 100-year global warming potential.

See Our Carbon Calculations to find out about the consumption-based approach we use in FutureFit to calculate emissions embodied in products and services.

New Zealand's current target is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 30 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030. Getting there will be easier if everyone makes choices that have a lower carbon impact. While for some this might mean fewer flights or holidaying at closer destinations, for others it might mean using public transport, taking shorter showers, or introducing more local produce into their diet.

The world (OECD) average carbon footprint is 10.8 tCO2-e and the NZ average is 7.7 tCO2-e. We’ve set a FutureFit target of 5.3 tCO2-e by 2025. By getting below this you’ll be doing your part - if we can all reduce our footprint by a little or a lot, the savings will soon add up. You can make an even bigger impact by encouraging your friends, whanau and colleagues to use FutureFit too.

FutureFit started as a collaboration between Wellington City Council and Auckland Council. We are currently partnering with the GenLess to extend access to all New Zealanders.

The FutureFit team have used a robust methodology to measure the carbon impact of everyday actions New Zealanders make. We hope you find this tool useful and motivating.