Track Your Footprint: Low Impact Calculators You Need to Know

In the busy world we live in today, have you ever wondered what our individual carbon footprint looks like, from something as basic as daily water consumption to shopping? Just changing a few small habits can actually help in the fight against climate change. To raise awareness and keep it educational, we’re sharing a few low-impact trackers you can explore.

These tools are just to give you an idea, not exactly down to the decimals, but a nice estimate to understand your daily footprint. Such tools can be used to monitor habits and identify areas where sustainability can be improved. And you already know the saying - actions speak louder than words. Whether it's shopping, the water usage, or everyday habits, these trackers help you make changes that feel real.

Vanish x Upparel - A Collaboration to Give Clothes a Second Life

In 2022, Upparel, a textile recovery brand, and Vanish, a stain removal brand, teamed up in Australia to divert 1 million clothing items from ending up in landfills, that’s around 200 tonnes of clothes saved from waste. A collab under the #MakeTextileWasteVanish campaign, was aimed at closing the loop. Their campaign encouraged people to donate clothes for reuse, recycling, upcycling, or charity, all in one go. They even built a mini impact tool, which you can find below on their page. You can scroll down, use the slider, and see how many kgs of clothes you saved and the greenhouse gases avoided. It’s made purely for educational purposes, to encourage sending in unwanted textiles and shoes, so they can reuse, upcycle, and help cut down greenhouse gas pollution. 

ThredUP - The Fashion Footprint Calculator

ThredUP is all about secondhand clothes and extending the life of garments to reduce waste. Wish to see a small estimate of your fashion impact? These guys have a cool little 10-question quiz, filled with interesting stats for each step. It’s based on a Carbon Study commissioned by independent research firm Green Story. ThredUP’s Fashion Footprint Calculator helps you understand the environmental impact of your clothing habits from how you shop to how you wash and toss them. It’s an awareness tool designed to encourage more sustainable fashion choices, without being preachy of course, but instead making responsible actions more engaging.

Selfless Clothes Tracker - The Material Tracker

Want to geek out over garment materials? The Clothing Footprint Calculator lets you find out the impact of specific garments depending on its types like cotton, recycled cotton, and synthetics like nylon (which is honestly a no-no because of how non-biodegradable it is). Just select the materials and get a side-by-side comparison. They claim to use the industry knowledge and lifecycle data from the actual manufacturing process. It’s not about judgment, it’s an educational tool to help you assess textile impact and raise awareness about fabric choices. Super useful if you're learning or switching to low-impact shopping.

Ethical Clothing - The Fashion Footprint Calculator

Based in Barcelona, Spain, this tool is all about helping people make ethical fashion decisions easier and understanding your purchase cycle. Their Fashion Footprint Calculator is a short 12-question quiz, that asks about how much you shop, how you wash your clothes, your consumption habits, etc. It’s simple, just plug in your general habits, and they give you rough estimates based on studies and reports. For awareness purposes but it’s also enough to help us realise and reflect. It’s made for better decision-making and to encourage low-impact choices in your clothing patterns.

Why Waste - The Water Tracker

Why Waste is an app founded by Garvita Gulhati, also known as The Water Girl of India, famous for starting the #HalfGlassFull movement to save water. We covered more about Garvita in our feature on India’s young sustainable changemakers, people who are working for a better tomorrow, for both planet and people. This app tracks your daily water footprint on how much water you actually use in a day. The Why Waste - YEWS, an app made in partnership with UNICEF, filled with challenges and resources to help you be more water-wise and save this precious element.

DIY Tracker - Because You Know Yourself Best

Your fashion choices or daily needs like water, or anything you use from morning to night, keep a little tab on the things you use and the things you actually need. Sometimes, the best tracker is the one you create for yourself.

Create your own simple checklist. Track your habits. Understand your own consumption. Make small, realistic changes where and when you can.

Could be as simple as:

- a Google Sheet where you note how often you drive vs public transport or walk
- or how many litres of water you use when brushing or washing vessels
- how often you run the tap unnecessarily
- How often you eat out or buy new clothes

Even if it’s just in an Excel sheet or the Notes app on your phone, that awareness builds a habit over time. Because whether it’s a big step or a tiny one, every action has a ripple effect.

You don't have to do everything all at once. It’s the mindfulness about being aware, staying curious, and taking action in ways that feel realistic and personal. The lower your impact, the lower the emissions, and the happier the planet and people around you.