Carbon Footprint Exercise
1) Go to https://www.carbonfootprint.com/calculator.aspx
2) Calculate your carbon footprint. For each tab (Welcome, House, Flights, etc.) fill in the information asked for.
3) If it doesn’t apply to you, skip that tab.
4) If you live in a dorm and your academic institution does not provide the information, you can use information from your parent’s bills and calculate your footprint making the assumption you still live there.
5) When you are done entering all your information, go to the results page. Take a screenshot of the results and paste it into your Word or pdf document.
6) Answer the following questions.
a) What is a carbon footprint?
b) What makes the greatest contribution to your CO2 emissions?
c) What are carbon offsets?
d) The goal of this assignment was for you to learn about all the potential contributions to the carbon cycle you are part of. What were your major take-home lessons from this exercise? If you are interested in making changes, what would they be? What types of changes do you think would require societal change (infrastructure, technology) before you could make a significant change?
Sample Solution
A carbon footprint is the total amount of greenhouse gas emissions that come from the production, use and end-of-life of a product or service. A carbon footprint corresponds to the whole amount of greenhouse gases produced to, directly and indirectly, support a person`s lifestyle and activities. Carbon footprints are usually measured in equivalent tons of carbon dioxide, during the period of a year, and they can be associated with an individual, an organization, a product or an event, among others. The transportation sector generates the largest share of greenhouse gas emissions. Greenhouse gas emissions from transportation primarily come from burning fossil fuel for our cars, trucks, ships, trains, and planes.
