To measure your carbon footprint, gather information about energy usage and enter it into a carbon calculator. This can help reduce your impact on global warming. Basic information needed includes location and household size. Online calculators require energy bills and transportation information. The calculator will provide your carbon footprint and suggest ways to reduce it. It may also provide benchmarks for comparison with similar households.
Measuring your carbon footprint starts with gathering information about how much energy and what type of energy you and your household use. This information is then entered into a carbon calculator, which will then determine the overall footprint left. Measuring your carbon footprint is useful if you want to determine how you can reduce your impact on global warming. While no carbon calculator is completely accurate, it can provide a basic comparison of you or your household to the averages of others.
Among the basic information needed to determine your carbon footprint is your location and the number of people in your household. This makes the calculator equally useful for both individuals and families. The calculator can average energy usage to show what each individual in the household is personally responsible for emissions. Location is required for comparison purposes.
A simple online search will bring up a number of online carbon calculators. To use a carbon calculator as accurately as possible, you’ll need to gather some information first. You should collect your energy bills or obtain a usage statement for the last 12 months from the utility company; you may need to add your monthly consumption and divide by 12 to get a monthly average. Write down your car’s gas mileage and how many miles you drive each year. Other forms of transportation, such as public transit and even air travel, may need to be factored into determining your carbon footprint.
The time it takes to enter the information needed to measure your carbon footprint depends on the calculator you use. Usually, the time-consuming part is actually gathering all the necessary information. Entering the information may only take 15 minutes, but it could take much longer, depending on the carbon footprint calculator you use.
Once you have entered all the information, the calculator will indicate your carbon footprint. This is done by calculating how many pounds, or kilograms, of carbon dioxide you or your family are emitting each year. It can also provide a breakdown of where most fossil fuel-based energy is used and provide suggestions on how to reduce that consumption. In some cases, the calculator may tell you how many pounds of carbon dioxide you could reduce by following these tips.
In many cases, an online carbon calculator will also provide some benchmarks, comparing similarly sized households in similar geographic areas. This can help you see the relative size of your carbon footprint in addition to the actual size. This can help you figure out if your energy use and carbon emissions aren’t in line with other people with similar lifestyles.
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