Do you know your horse's carbon hoofprint?

As the first Carbon Positive pet insurer in the UK, we are committed to reducing our impact on the planet. We absolutely love pets and know that they enrich our lives in so many ways, but they too have an environmental impact.

Whilst horses have a relatively low environmental impact compared to an adult human, there are still ways in which we can reduce it. Through recent surveys, we know that horse owners are increasingly interested in sustainability, and how they can care for their horses and ponies in the most environmentally friendly way possible. Calculating your horse’s carbon hoofprint (environmental impact), will give you a great place to start – you can’t manage what you haven’t measured!

By answering a series of short questions about your horse, we are able to estimate the carbon impact of each answer. This gives us a total amount of carbon in KG at the end of the calculator. We also compare your horse’s carbon impact to the average adult humans carbon footprint (13 tonnes CO2e) to provide some context.

There are many factors to consider when working out a carbon hoofprint. As horses eat a plant based diet, the biggest impact is usually from your horse’s veterinary spend and associated travel (either of your horse or the people who care for them). We then consider what else you may be doing with your horse:

Yard and stables – We have included emissions from bedding and electricity, along with estimated travel emissions to and from facilities to care for your horse.

Veterinary spend and tack / equipment – Buying products, medications and equipment for your horse carries a carbon cost for these to be produced. We have allocated an average carbon emissions amount to these based on your spend.

Vet and paraprofessional visits – Again, we have added in emissions associated with people coming to visit and care for your horse.

On the final results page of the calculator, there will be an ‘Offset Now’ button. This will take you directly to webpage page to offset your horse’s emissions and pay directly through a secure portal.

Simply put, offsetting is a way to balance your emissions (individual, pets, or businesses), by funding an equivalent CO2e saving elsewhere.

This may be by supporting renewable energy projects to be built (wind, solar and hydro power), which reduce the reliance on fossil fuels. It could be preventing forests from being logged and destroyed, preserving mature trees, and stopping deforestation.

We only invest in projects that are verified and accredited by the worlds leading carbon registries, such as The Gold Standard, VERRA and the United Nations.

(Please note – Tree planting is not offsetting, this is done alongside offsetting as a totally separate initiative, for future benefits and to help biodiversity).

12 months of carbon offsetting, invested only in high impact Gold Standard, VERRA or United Nations accredited projects.

One tree planted on your horse’s behalf.

Personalised certificates for both carbon offsets and tree in your horse’s name.

We round up the carbon hoofprint amount to the nearest whole tonne. This is because we retire credits in whole, by the complete tonne, and to ensure we are not under accounting for any of your horse’s emissions.

We have based the emissions data on peer reviewed papers, emissions conversion factors from the UK Government and DEFRA, and followed the GHG carbon accounting protocol.

If you have any further questions on this please contact us at info@ecooffset.org