Discover Your Climate Footprint
While city, county, state, and international actions are necessary to address the climate crisis, the cumulative impact of individual actions that are relatively painless can be immense. This Climate Footprint Calculator assesses the greenhouse gas emissions resulting from our daily living – measured in terms of the carbon dioxide equivalent of those emissions and offers suggestions of how we can reduce those emissions. While some 65 – 70% of global warming is caused by carbon dioxide, the rest is caused by other greenhouse gases such as methane that is released by the production and transmission of natural gas. This footprint calculator assesses all of the greenhouse gas emissions resulting from our behavior.
Based on our experience with this footprint calculator, if you move quickly, the whole exercise takes 10 minutes. If you discuss with family members and really consider actions you might take to reduce impact, then it’s about a 30 minute activity.
Follow the link below to the Climate Footprint Calculator, then follow the written directions below or watch the Video directions. Have fun!
Link to CoolCalifornia.org Calculator for Households & Individuals
| Section | Directions | Info needed |
| Step 1 – Get started | ||
| Fill in sections 1-3
1.City and State 2. # of people in household 3.Estimated Gross income |
Annual income for each member in the home | |
| Step 2 – Travel | ||
| Use the drop down arrows to pick the fuel used in each vehicle.
Fill in estimated miles per year. Use the blue dot to gauge the miles per gallon for each vehicle Click +add to add extra vehicles if necessary |
Estimated annual miles per vehicle.
Miles per gallon for each vehicle. Annual miles traveled via public transit Annual miles traced via Airplane |
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| Step 3 – Home | ||
| Electricity
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Fill in the annual/monthly monetary sum spent or kWh used for electricity. Use the drop down arrow to choose $/kWh and yr/mo
Use the blue dot to gauge percentage used from clean energy source |
Monthly electricity bills will tell you how many kilowatt hours you have used in the month at what cost.
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| Natural Gas | Fill in the amount of $/therms/ft cubed use the drop down arrow to choose units and time | Monthly utility bills will tell you how many cubic meters you have used in the month at what cost. |
| Heating Oil & Other Fuels | Use drop down arrows to choose units and time. Fill in amount | Monthly bills for heating oil or other home heating fuels will tell you how many liters of oil were delivered to you each month at what cost. |
| Living space area | Fill in sq. footage of home.
If you do not know, click the “?” for directions to measure area
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| Water usage | Use the blue dot to mark the percentage of water used based on average households. Click the “?” to see average water used based on the number of members in the household. | |
| Step 4 – Food | ||
| Use the blue dot to gauge average servings per food group per person | ||
| Step 5 – Shopping | ||
| Use the blue dot to show the average monetary amount spent on goods and services per month. | Spending summary, bills, receipts, etc. | |
| Step 6 – Reduce your impact | ||
| Click the select button next to each suggested action to determine if you have already done so or pledge to make the change. | ||
