how to reduce your carbon footprint

Reduce What You Can, Offset What You Cant.

Thats our motto, and were proud of it. Everyone has a responsibility to reduce their
individual carbon footprint, and there are lots of ways to do so. We encourage everyone to
think about their lifestyle decisions and find opportunities to reduce their climate impact.
You can get partway to carbon neutrality through how you live your life, i.e., reducing your
carbon footprint, and get the rest of the way there by supporting Carbonfund.orgs carbon
offset projects.

Here are some good ways to start.

Did you know that the energy used to produce, deliver and dispose of junk mail produces
more greenhouse gas emissions than 2.8 million cars? You can dramatically reduce your junk
mail through the service of our nonprofit partner 41pounds, which will contact dozens of
direct mail companies to remove your name from lists, including catalogs you specify. The
cost is $41 for everyone in your household for five years. Click here for more
information.
With the world's growing reliance on the Internet, the office is becoming a major driver of
climate change. The energy required to power all the world's computers, data storage, and
communications networks is expected to double by 2020. ePlusGreen offers free
technology that monitors and can help to minimize energy usage from computers and office
networks, thus reducing carbon emissions. Click here for more information.

Here are some more ideas to get you started on your zero-carbon journey:

Reduce the Carbon Footprint of Your

Car
Drive better - Studies have shown up to 30% of the difference in miles per gallon (MPG) is
due to driving habits alone. You could save more than a ton of CO2 per year by:
- Accelerating slowly and smoothly
- Driving the speed limit

- Maintaining a steady speed

- Anticipating your stops and starts
Maintenance - Keep your car tuned up and running efficiently.
More Maintenance - Replace your air, oil and fuel filters according to schedule.
Tires - Keep your tires properly inflated (just this can save 400-700 pounds of CO 2 per
year).
Make your next vehicle a fuel-efficient one - Check out EPAs Green Vehicle Guide for
info on miles per gallon as well as EPA SmartWay certified vehicles, meeting rigorous air
pollution and greenhouse gas emissions standards.
Household fuel efficiency - If your household has two cars and one is used mostly for
commuting, make the commuting car a real gas sipper if you cant for both.

Reduce the Carbon Footprint of Your

Travel
A lot of our emissions come from just being inefficient or not deliberate with our daily
decisions. Every day think about how you could reduce the miles you drive and pretty soon
youll start identifying lots of opportunities:
Combine your trip with another.
Carpool - Just once a week saves 20%.
Check out your transit options - It may not work for you every time, but use it when it
does.
What about your bike? - Get in shape, too!
Only a mile? - Walk.
Think it through - Do you need to take this trip at all?
Get it on the Internet.
Optimize - Save this trip for later and combine with another.
Telecommute - Work from home occasionally.

Reduce the Carbon Footprint of Your

Air Travel
Think about the trip - Can you combine it with another or get more done on one trip?
Train - For some trips the train may be a good choice for you.
Fly nonstop - Nonstop flights are better than connecting flights (for many reasons).
When you get there - Do some research ahead of time to find better ground travel options

(shuttles, transit, trains, etc.) at your destination.

Lodging - Ask your hotel about their environmental commitment and steps theyre taking to
reduce, offset.
While youre away - Turn your stuff off. Turn down your thermostat and your water heater;
turn off your electronics (even smarter: unplug them to protect from electrical storms).
Whats the point of things being on with no one there?
More tips - Take a look at these green travel tips.

Reduce the Carbon Footprint of Your

Home
Programmable thermostat Costs about $50 or less and will save you that much or more
in the first year.
Weatherstripping and Caulking Costs almost nothing while reducing your energy use,
reducing drafts and improving comfort.

Lighting Compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) have that cool curly shape and save more
than 2/3rds of the energy of a regular incandescent. Each bulb can save $40 or more over
its lifetime. Read the box or instructions for safe disposal.
Heating and Cooling - Keep your heating and cooling system(s) tuned. When its time to
replace, do your research and ask for ENERGY STAR.
Insulation Weatherstripping, caulking and insulation work together to save you energy,
improve the comfort of your home, make it quieter and help you save money.
Water-Conserving Showerheads & Toilets You can reduce water and heating costs,
even in your bathroom. To save even more water, turn the faucet off when brushing or
shaving. These simple changes and steps can save many thousands of gallons of water
annually.
Appliances Always pay attention to the total lifetime cost, including energynot just the
price tag. Look for the ENERGY STAR label (check out energystar.gov).
Bigger isnt always better - Just get the size you need; do you really need that extra
refrigerator in the basement?
Electronics Likewise, look for ENERGY STAR. And do like your Mom said- turn things off. If
youre going away or not using an item for awhile, unplug it to prevent vampire energy
loss from electricity usage on standby.
Windows These can be expensive, but when its time to replace them, make sure they are
ENERGY STAR rated.
Solar We love solar, but make sure you reduce your energy load first to keep your costs
down.
New Home Consider an energy-efficient ENERGY STAR Home.

Reduce the Carbon Footprint of Your

Wedding
Weddings are all about the couple, but they can still be a little about the planet, right?
Knowledge There is a surprising amount to learn when it comes to planning a wedding.
Though primarily a resource for training green wedding planners, New Wedding Planet is
a great site for new couples to learn the ins and outs of planning everything from cake
design to the elements of traditional or cultural ceremonies.
Invitations Utilize recycled or post-consumer waste paper for all your invitations, thank
you notes, place cards, etc. Or cut out the paper waste altogether by choosing to go digital
and putting Save the Dates, maps, and reception cards on your wedding website.
Flowers and Food Same idea for both: make it local, organic and seasonal. Almost all
caterers and florists can help you with this, and you can get educated by going to your
farmers market and asking what will be in season on your big day.
Dcor Let the natural beauty of your outdoor wedding shine or consider using potted
plants to adorn your indoor event guests can take them home and transplant them, as
opposed to wreaths of cut flowers that only survive a day or two. If your heart is set on
roses, get more bang for your buds by reusing floral arrangements from your ceremony at
the reception.
Gifts and Favors The Green Bride Guide had a wealth of resources for finding ecofriendly favors from beeswax candles to chocolate treats. For gifts, registering through the
Green Bride Guide allows your guests to support sustainable businesses and even donate a
portion of the sales to your favorite cause.
Transportation The biggest carbon footprint from any event is the transportation. Try
holding the wedding in a location central to most guests. If thats not possible,
use Carbonfund.orgs wedding calculator to offset the travel and hotel impact.

Reduce the Carbon Footprint of Your

Office
Enable your power management - so your computer and monitor shut down.
Consider using ePlusGreens PC energy-saving technology - The system
monitors/minimizes computer and printer energy
usage.

Do you need to
print?- Consider saving a file on your computer, in a flash drive or emailing it.
Double-side print - Saves paper too.
Can you carpool or transit or bike to work? See above.
Open up - If you have windows you can open, use them to intelligently save energy.
Turn em off - Only use the lights you need. If youre using your computer you may not
need your office lights on too.
Occupancy sensors - Shut off lights in unused rooms. Better, get your building to install
occupancy sensors.
Bring your lunch - Or walk to the local eatery instead of driving.

Reduce the Carbon Footprint of Your

Life
Only 40% of the average Americans carbon footprint is due to their direct energy use. The
other 60% is indirect; it comes from everything we buy and usegoods and services. Pay
attention to your consumption and waste habits, and youll find lots of opportunities to
conserve.
Reduce. Reuse. Recycle.
Youve heard it before, but its still great advice. Manufacturing products produces an
average 4-8 pounds of CO2 for every pound of manufactured product.
Stop your junk mail with the help of 41pounds, a nonprofit service that contacts dozens
of direct mailers to remove your name from their lists.
Buy locally if possible. Shipping burns fuel. A 5-pound package shipped by air across the
country creates 12 pounds of CO2 (3 pounds if shipped by truck).
Eat less meat. If youre already a vegetarian, you save at least 3,000 pounds of CO 2 per
year compared to meat eaters. If youre not a vegetarian, just increase the number of
vegetarian meals you eat each week by one or two. Also, poultry is less greenhouse gas
intensive than beef.
Dont waste food. Mom was right. About one-quarter of all the food prepared annually in
the U.S., for example, gets tossed, producing methane in landfills as well as carbon
emissions from transporting wasted food.

Carbon footprint:- A carbon footprint is the approximate carbon output by an individual,

corporation, or government through normal activities. Generally speaking we don't actually produce
carbon beyond breathing (which is considered a neutral output), but everything we do and use does
usually require carbon to even be able to do. Everything you do from driving, to eating, to even watching
TV uses carbon is one form or another, when you tally all that activity up you can approximate how much
carbon was used and produced for you to actually have been able to do what you did.

Foot prints are what is left behind from the activity of walking or running. "Carbon footprint" has a very
specific and long definition which you can find in the site below. It is an analysis of the greenhouse gas
emissions that are left in the environment as a result of our activities. The greenhouse gas of most
concern is carbon dioxide because of the volume left from burning fossil fuels.
The "carbon footprint" can be for an individual, a company, a country or even the world as a whole. Fossil
fuels stored carbon for millions of years and this may be contrasted with the carbon that is recirculated by
using of renewable resources.
Carbon from renewable resources is "present day" carbon that is recycled through the environment. Using
recycled carbon is sometimes called "carbon neutral" as it adds no additional carbon and will not make
atmospheric carbon levels rise.

What is a carbon footprint - definition

A carbon footprint is defined as:
The total amount of greenhouse gases produced to directly and indirectly support human activities,
usually expressed in equivalent tons of carbon dioxide (CO2).
In other words: When you drive a car, the engine burns fuel which creates a certain amount of CO2,
depending on its fuel consumption and the driving distance. (CO2 is the chemical symbol for carbon
dioxide). When you heat your house with oil, gas or coal, then you also generate CO2. Even if you
heat your house with electricity, the generation of the electrical power may also have emitted a certain
amount of CO2. When you buy food and goods, the production of the food and goods also emitted
some quantities of CO2.
Your carbon footprint is the sum of all emissions of CO2 (carbon dioxide), which were
induced by your activities in a given time frame. Usually a carbon footprint is calculated for the
time period of a year.
The best way is to calculate the carbon dioxide emissions based on the fuel consumption. In the next
step you can add the CO2 emission to your carbon footprint. Below is a table for the most common
used fuels:
Examples:

For each (UK-) gallon of petrol fuel consumed, 10.4 kg carbon dioxide (CO 2) is emitted.

For each (US-) gallon of gasoline fuel consumed, 8.7 kg carbon dioxide (CO 2) is emitted.
If your car consumes 7.5 liter diesel per 100 km, then a drive of 300 km distance consumes 3
x 7.5 = 22.5 liter diesel, which adds 22.5 x 2.7 kg = 60.75 kg CO2 to your personal carbon footprint.

fuel type

Petrol

Petrol

Gasoline

Gasoline

Diesel

Diesel

Diesel

Oil (heating)

Oil (heating)

Oil (heating)

Each of the following activities add 1 kg of CO2 to your personal carbon footprint:

Travel by public transportation (train or bus) a distance of 10 to 12 km (6.5 to 7 miles)

Drive with your car a distance of 6 km or 3.75 miles (assuming 7.3 litres petrol per 100 km or
39 mpg)
Fly with a plane a distance of 2.2 km or 1.375 miles.

Operate your computer for 32 hours (60 Watt consumption assumed)

Production of 5 plastic bags
Production of 2 plastic bottles
Production of 1/3 of an American cheeseburger (yes, the production of each cheeseburger
emits 3.1 kg of CO2!)

To calculate the above contributions to the carbon footprint, the current UK mix for electricity and
trains was taken into account.
Carbon dioxide is a so called greenhouse gas causing global warming . Other greenhouse gases
which might be emitted as a result of your activities are e.g. methane and ozone. These greenhouse
gases are normally also taken into account for the carbon footprint. They are converted into the
amount of CO2 that would cause the same effects on global warming (this is called equivalent CO2
amount).
Few people express their carbon footprint in kg carbon rather than kg carbon dioxide. You can always
convert kg carbon dioxide in kg carbon by multiplying with a factor 0.27 (1'000 kg CO2 equals 270 kg
carbon). See my comment to the article about personal responsibility for global warming .
The carbon footprint is a very powerful tool to understand the impact of personal behaviour on global
warming. Most people are shocked when they see the amount of CO2 their activities create! If you
personally want to contribute to stop global warming, the calculation and constant monitoring of your
personal carbon footprint is essential.
For registered users, there is a carbon footprint calculator on this website, which allows to store
individual activities like, e.g. travelling by car, train, bus or air plane, fuel consumptions, electricity
bills and so on (we call the individual contributions "carbon stamps"). You can then see the amount of
CO2 created for each individual activity. You can do this either in advance and use it as a help for
decisions or afterwards to continually sum up your carbon dioxide emissions. Klick here to see
a sample carbon footprint with some activities.
An off-line carbon footprint and primary energy consumption calculator (Excel sheet) is already
available in the download section.