If you’re serious about becoming more eco-friendly and living a greener life, then one of the things you may want to check out is your carbon footprint. Your carbon footprint, as defined by carbonfootprint.com is “a measure of the impact our activities have on the environment.” It is specific to the amount of greenhouse gases your day to day activities create. Here’s how to measure your carbon footprint.
Primary and Secondary Footprints
While your carbon footprint is a measurement of all greenhouse gases you produce, there are actually two measurements you can take a look at.
Your primary footprint – This is a measure of your emissions based on your direct usage. For example, if you drive your car to the grocery store, you’re using fuel and having a direct impact on the greenhouse gasses you’re emitting. You have control over your primary footprint – you could walk or ride your bike to the store or make one trip a week rather than two or three.
Your secondary footprint – is a measure of the indirect CO2 emissions from the products you use. For example, if you buy produce grown locally that will have fewer emissions than produce that was grown halfway around the globe and transported to your local market.
Calculating Your Carbon Footprint
There are several online tools you can use to calculate your carbon footprint. As you work your way through these tools they’ll ask questions like:
* How many people are in your family?
* What type of home do you live in?
* What state do you live in?
* How many bedrooms do you have?
* How much do you spend on electricity each month?
* How much do you spend on gas each month?
* How much do you drive and what kind of car?
* How often do you fly?
* How often do you eat organic food?
* How often do you eat meat?
* Do you recycle?
* Do you compost?
Your Results
Your results will be given in tons as in tons of carbon dioxide emitted each year. To provide some insight, the United States annual average is 110 tons per year for a four person household. The global average for the same four person household is 22 tons per year. As you can see, the US emits a lot of greenhouse gases!
Reducing Your Carbon Footprint
A lot of what you can do to reduce your primary and secondary emissions are things you’re already familiar with:
* Carpool
* Walk when you can instead of driving
* Cut back on your home heating and cooling bill
* Turn off lights and electronics when you’re not using them
* Use cold water to wash things instead of hot
* Buy energy star appliances
* Buy local produce
* Recycle
* Travel less
Consider making it a goal, once you know your carbon footprint, to reduce it. Hitting the global average is surely a significant goal if you’re like the average US household!
Keep Going Green!
Lynne
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