Calculate & Reduce Your Carbon Footprint: A Comprehensive Guide

Your carbon footprint is a measurement of the carbon dioxide emissions you create in your life. This number is determined by calculating how you heat and cool your home, the type of car you drive and how you drive it and if you recycle or not. The Nature Conservancy and the United States Environmental Protection Agency offer online calculators that enable you to not only see your carbon footprint, but how you can reduce it, as well.

Things You'll Need

• Computer and Internet connection
• Past utility bills
• Car mileage

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Instructions

• 1

  Gather your utility bills. This may include electricity, natural gas, fuel oil or propane. Also determine if you purchase green power or not. Some local utilities offer this option, as do green power marketers.

• 2

  Determine your car mileage information. This is the average distance your car is driven either each week or year. You also need to know how many miles you get per gallon of fuel. Do this for each car in the household.

• 3

  Go to either the Nature Conservancy or U.S. EPA website and enter your information as prompted. Your results are given as you enter your information and then also as a summary when the calculations are complete.