Brighter Planet

How do you calculate offset equivalents?

Domestic flights

According to table 7 of the BTS June 2007 Airline Traffic Data regarding domestic flights, the average distance flown per passenger in miles is 869.8. If we use Clean Air-Cool Planet’s A Consumers’ Guide to Retail Carbon Offset Providers estimate of 1 ton CO₂e per 2000 flight miles, this is 0.4349 tons per domestic flight.

Cars off the road for 1,900 miles

Clean Air-Cool Planet’s A Consumers’ Guide to Retail Carbon Offset Providers estimates 1 ton CO₂e per 1,900 miles travelled in a mid-sized car.

Home power, heating, and cooling

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Personal Emissions Calculator estimates 16,290 pounds CO₂e for electricity and 11,000 pounds CO₂e for natural gas for a household of two people over a year. This approximates to 13.6 tons per year or slightly more than 1 ton CO₂e per month of running an average U.S. household.