What is a carbon footprint?

A carbon footprint is an estimate of how much your lifestyle contributes to climate change. It’s a single number that represents the total quantity of greenhouse gas emissions you’re responsible for in a year.

Brighter Planet’s footprint calculator is designed to estimate your individual footprint. This includes all the emissions you alone are responsible for and a portion of any emissions you share with your family or other people. We organize your emissions into four categories: transportation, shelter, consumables, and government.

Carbon footprints are expressed in carbon dioxide equivalent (CO₂e) units. This is because other gases in addition to carbon dioxide cause global warming, and each has a different potency. Converting them all into CO2e means your footprint can be expressed as a single number.

Greenhouse gases are measured by weight, so carbon footprints are usually expressed in pounds, tons, or kilograms. For perspective, these emissions sometimes are converted into “equivalents” that compare them to real-world objects like cars, trees, or light bulbs.

Brighter Planet is all about giving you the tools you need to understand and reduce your footprint. You can:

• Learn more about the the average American’s carbon footprint.
• Measure and track your personal footprint
• Reduce your impact with simple conservation ideas
• Help build renewable energy projects by earning free offsets with a credit or debit card, purchasing an offset package, or offsetting your personalized footprint.

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