What is the cost of love?
Or rather, what is the environmental cost of love?
OK, let’s be clear, what we are about to say is meant purely as a bit of fun. We are not really warning against a threat of faster climate change because of people falling in love. We definitely advocate falling in love - for everyone. Crack on with it.
However, that said, our mission at Switch2Zero is to try and help everyone get to a net zero carbon footprint, so just to put a brief downer on things (before offering a wonderful ray of joy at the end) there is indeed a carbon footprint to finding ‘The One’.
So what is it?
Well, first up - it’s hard to be specific on this. Research shows that people fall in love in a huge variety of ways - from that first look lightning-strike moment, to a realisation after years of friendship that you already know ‘The One’.
What this means for this proposal (yes, we’ll be getting down on one knee asking you to offset your love journey at the end of this - go on, say yes) is that we have to work on generic data and rough averages. Although, we’ll show the workings, so if you want to be more accurate, then you absolutely can be.
So. . .what is the Carbon Footprint of Love. . .Here goes:
The research we’ve found online suggests the (non-existent) average person has a number of romantic relationships - typically 2 - 9 - before finding "The One". So we’ll average it to 5.5 relationships - taking into account the variance across genders and sexuality.
Based on 5.5 semi-serious relationships before finding "the one", and the assumption that each of these relationships involves about 9 dates (based on the UK data - where a commitment to a relationship developed on average after nine dates), a person might go on approximately 49.5 dates - we’ll round it up to 50 - before finding ‘The One’ relationship.
Next up - what do people do on dates? The five most common date ‘things’ are dinner or grabbing something to eat, going for a drink (bar or coffee), enjoying a shared activity (from bowling to pottery classes and everything in between), going to the cinema or a show / gig, taking a walk or a hike, or attending a ‘cultural event’ (museum, art gallery etc).
We looked at some very generic data sets for the CO2e emissions for each of these activities - and they came in as follows:
Dining:
Average could range:
- 0.9 - 1.4 kg CO2/person for vegetarian/vegan options.
- 1.4 - 1.7 kg CO2/person for non-vegetarian average restaurant meals.
- Significantly higher for fine dining with meat-heavy choices.
Shared Activities:
Average could range:
- 0.1 - 0.2 kg CO2/person for minimal activities like mini golf.
- 0.3 - 0.4 kg CO2/person for activities like bowling or museums.
- Higher for energy-intensive activities like escape rooms or pottery classes.
Outdoor Activities:
Minimal footprint overall:
- Walking: Negligible
- Hiking: 0.02 kg CO2 per km per person (assuming minimal driving)
- Transportation to starting point influences the footprint.
Entertainment:
Average could range:
- 0.2 - 0.3 kg CO2/person for tickets (includes production and distribution).
- 1.5 - 0.8 kg CO2/person for the entire visit (depending on venue size and transportation).
So, let’s assume we average this out over 50 dates, say ten of each ‘thing’, with five at the lower number and five at the higher. We get this…
Total Estimated Dating Costs: 66kg
OK, we have our initial total for date-night events. Now we have to add a few more data points into the dating game equation.
First, transport. The average distance people travel for dates in the UK and US is 10 miles - roughly. So, let’s double it for a couple to 20 miles per date - which we then times by fifty to get 1,000 miles for the road to true love.
Using a blended CO2e emission factor that averages the emissions of vehicles in the US and the UK/EU, we arrive at an adjusted factor of approximately 0.354 kg of CO2e per mile for car travel.
Based on this blended emission factor, the total CO2e emissions for car travel over 50 dates, covering 1,000 miles, would be around 354 kg of CO2e. Which, interestingly enough, is the same distance The Proclaimers claimed they’d be willing to travel ‘to fall down at the door’ of their true love. . . although they also did it in the most environmentally friendly way, by walking 500 miles (and then 500 more)!
Of course, the more public transport you use, the purer your love will be. . .at least in terms of the air - but for this exercise we’ll stick with the car.
Total Estimated Transport Costs: 354kg
We’re going to add three more ingredients to our romantic mix now - flowers (because, well, Miley Cyrus name-checked them in a recent sort-of love song), a jewellery gift (a classic sign of love and commitment) and a holiday together (to cement the love union).
Flowers are a classic gift - and no flower demonstrates love as quintessentially as a rose.
One online figure suggested UK grown roses - seed to sale - account for about 1.71kg for 15 stems. Those grown in Holland - the UK’s biggest supplier - deliver six-times higher emissions, given extra transportation / refrigeration. So, again, let's average it all out, and use roses - and we get a combined figure of around 25kg of CO2 emissions if you offer flowers on five dates.
Total Estimated Footprint for Flowers: 25kg
Giving a gift of jewellery is also a classic demonstration of love - with gold, and its eternal shine and untarnishable nature, the most frequent choice.
Gold, though, has to be mined and processed and crafted and sold before you get the chance to offer it up to the love of your life - and of course, there’s a carbon footprint attached to this.
Statistics suggest that the production cost of gold is around 20kg per gram - so giving someone an average 5g gold necklace (and we’ll go with that for ease, because the calculation around diamonds or other gems is insanely hard) has a footprint cost of 100kg.
Total Estimated Footprint for Gold Necklace: 100kg
As for the holiday, well, several bits of research showed between 60 and 70 percent of people sought to go on a holiday with a potential ‘The One’ before fully committing. The idea being, if you can hack it together on holiday for two-weeks, you can survive for life (the logic beyond this reasoning may not be legit, BTW).
Estimating the carbon footprint of a holiday is tricky - given all the destinations, starting points, hotel types, cars etc etc etc. So, we’re going to go for this: a trip to Spain (the UK’s most popular destination) and specifically Malaga.
- Flight emissions: Assuming London to Malaga (1400 km distance), an average return flight emits roughly 1.4 tonnes of CO2 per person (Atmosfair calculator). So for a couple that’s 2.4 tonnes
- Hotel stay: An average hotel stay in Spain generates around 200 kg CO2 per person per week (Green Globe estimates) - so we’ll double it to 400kg for the couple.
- Car rental: Assuming 200 km per day driving with a standard petrol car, weekly emissions could be around 300 kg CO2 (based on average fuel efficiency and distance). So we’ll double that to 600kg
- Activities: too many variables, we’ll leave it off.
Total estimated footprint per couple: 3.4 tonnes.
We arrive, then, at a totally hypothetical, scientifically unproven, and laughably generic total - but based on the data we can see online, the Carbon Footprint of falling in love and finding ‘The One’ is…
Total Cost of Falling in Love: 3.95 tonnes of CO2e
(excluding condoms)
So there we have it. The cost of love is 3.95 tonnes - which feels about as useful and scientific as the famous calculation in Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy around ‘what is the answer to life, the universe and everything’ (spoiler alert. . .it's 42).
To add some - admittedly weird - perspective to it, that’s about the same as: half the carbon footprint of producing a car (estimated at 6 - 8 tonnes); four trans-atlantic economy class flights; or the carbon footprint cost of producing 148kg of red meat.
However none of those will make you feel special - so we say, stick with falling in love!
But just to make your relationship even more special (and yup, here’s comes that proposal) you could make your love journey, ahem, carbon neutral?
Just chuck 3.9 tonnes into S2Z’s Instant Offset tool, and for less than £21.50 you can truly have love that doesn’t cost the earth!
