I was listening to the Connected Traveller : Travel News/Odds ‘n’ Ends this morning and one of the items was about The Happy Planet Index which is an index of human well-being and environmental impact. The UK is pretty low with a HPI (Happy Planet Index) of 40.3. The top of the index is Vanuatu with an HPI of 68.2. The lowest is Zimbabwe with 16.6 where life expectancy is only 36.9 years.
You can calculate your own HPI. I scored 29.7 which isn’t very good, but seems to be pretty badly affected on ecological footprint which for me is 8.62 global hectares, or the equivalent of 4.79 planets – oops! Most of this is due to my 30 mile each way trip to work, and my flights to the US/Canada for snowboarding. We’re pretty good with recycling, but I need to be better at turning electrical appliances off rather than leaving them in standby.
