Tracking your carbon footprint is arguably one of the most talked about points in sustainability. Carbon footprint refers to the total greenhouse gas emissions one person is emitting, and it is reflected in terms of carbon dioxide (hence, carbon footprint). The concept of going carbon neutral means removing the carbon dioxide a person is releasing through natural processes (such as trees absorbing carbon dioxide from the air).
Overtime, the idea of going carbon neutral has become all-encompassing to take into considerations things such as your diet and how much meat you are consuming each day. Many influencers, leaders, or figures in sustainability often like to talk about how little waste they generate in their lifestyle. On the other hand, for businesses, they often talk about how their online business is all carbon neutral because they offset the carbon emissions from their shipment.
Just like there are many ways to practice sustainability, there are many ways to think about carbon emissions, carbon footprint, or what it means to be carbon neutral. This guide will help you start thinking of what things you should take into consideration.
What Goes into a Carbon Footprint?
There are four main components that I believe are crucial to calculating your personal carbon footprint:
- Transportation
- Meat and dairy consumption
- Water usage
- Electricity usage
These four components make up what I believe to be the most important things to note when calculating how much of a “footprint” we are leaving on Earth.
The reason we track our transportation is because of the carbon dioxide that a car or train or other traditional forms of transportation will emit. Similarly, meat and dairy consumption is also a key issue because like any other living creature, livestock will emit greenhouse gases, but when we are breeding livestock specifically for meat and dairy consumption, the greenhouse gas emissions become off balanced.
Water usage is something slightly more confusing. One wouldn’t typically think that water emits any carbon dioxide or greenhouse gases, but water usage is key in calculating our carbon footprint. Pumping water to our homes and heating water for our daily usages will require energy, hence water usage has an impact on our footprint.
Lastly, and perhaps most obviously, traditional electric power will generate carbon dioxide emissions.
What About Our “Trash”?
One final key thing to point out about calculating our carbon footprint is that there can be a fifth component to how we think about our carbon footprint. This fifth component is how much single-use plastic or paper or general “trash” we generate in our life. The reason that I tend to avoid thinking of our trash as a mandatory requirement in thinking of our carbon footprint is because there becomes a point when I genuinely believe we are going to spend more time worrying about our carbon footprint than actually contribute positively to society.
That isn’t to say we should continue using single use plastic that we can’t recycle or forget how to responsibly dispose of our trash. However, even things such as sanitizing wipes or medicine bottles are “trash” but are essential to our personal health. There comes a point when we have to make a judgment call on how much trash we have and a point when we have to ask ourselves whether we are doing everything we can to minimize our waste.
How to Calculate Your Carbon Footprint
There are many ways to calculate your carbon footprint, but my favorite way is through the app Capture. Another method I love is with the online carbon footprint calculator through nature.org. I believe in easiness, efficiency, and accuracy when it comes to calculating my carbon footprint.
Two important ways I keep track of my transportation and meat and dairy consumption is through my daily memory planner. Each day, I write down exactly what I do and what I am eating, and doing this gives me an really easy way to look back on my life over the past month.
The way I track my water usage and electricity usage isn’t as perfect, but I love to utilize my bills each month to see how I am trending. Am I using more or less this month based on my bill?
The most important thing when it comes to calculating your carbon footprint is to remember that this is a journey! You do not have to be perfect from the beginning, but the more we are consciously aware, the more we are contributing to creating a more beautiful Earth.
My Favorite Ways to Offset My Carbon Footprint
Carbon offsets are a credit for the carbon emissions that we can buy to compensate for our carbon footprint. Typically, these can be sold by non-profits or charities and the offsets are usually in the form of planting more trees, restoring our freshwater ecosystems, or investing in alternative energy programs.
I do not believe in throwing money at an organization you don’t truly understand simply to say that I have purchased a carbon offset. Instead, I like to offset my carbon footprint through planting more trees and cleaning up the ocean.
We all know that trees play a huge part in absorbing the carbon dioxide in the air, but did you know that 83% of the carbon cycle is regulated by the ocean? That means the ocean plays a key part in absorbing the carbon dioxide in the air. Here’s the key thing to remember: when we plant a tree or invest in cleaning up the ocean, these things take time. A tree takes time to grow, and trees are constantly being cut down each day.
As an example, each month, though planting just one tree will offset my carbon footprint for the month, I always choose to plant multiple trees simply because these things take time.
My hope is that all of us can start thinking about our carbon footprint a little bit more and start being mindful of how much of an impact we are leaving on Earth, whether that impact is positive or negative.
