Calculate Your Carbon Footprint

By / Magazine / August 6th, 2009 / 2

Eating locally produced food has been the mantra of chefs and restaurant patrons alike these last few years. Not only is it fresher and often healthier, it produces a lower carbon footprint because food doesn’t have to be shipped over great distances. More people can be fed a greater variety of foods because farms can diversify their operations. No more clear cutting rain forests to make way for cattle farms of monolithic proportions. Now, with Zerofootprint’s One Minute Calculators, you can see how well you’re doing at reducing emissions.

The Zerofootprint group of companies is comprised of a not-for-profit organization, a software development team and a carbon offset group. Their goal is to work together to encourage companies and individuals to live green in a low carbon world. Zerofootprint has developed One Minute Calculators that allow visitors to their site to get a quick measure of their carbon footprint. If you’d like to delve into it further, you can register and set your own carbon cutting goals while following others as they pursue their own goals.

After inputing basic information about my diet and lifestyle, the calculator was able to estimate the level of carbon emissions my activities typically release. Apparently my lifestyle produces 9.5 tonnes of CO2. The only downside to the site was that I couldn’t seem to find information on the national average. Without that, I couldn’t judge whether I was above, below or at par with the rest of the country. National numbers aside, the calculators provide a starting point from which each of us can reduce our footprint.

Visit www.zerofootprint.net for more information.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Rosemary Mantini has always loved words. When she isn't working as the Associate Editor at Tidings Magazine, she's helping others achieve their writing dreams, and sometimes she even relaxes with a good book and a glass of wine.

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