CALCULATE YOUR CARBON FOOTPRINT

Your "carbon footprint" is the amount of your contribution to the greenhouse gases that cause global warming.  Most of your impact can be measured by fairly simple calculations based on your use of electricity, natural gas and fuels for transportation.  It is expressed in pounds of carbon dioxide (CO2). 

You will find many tools to measure this on-line, but most of these suffer from one or more of these basic flaws:

• They use broad averages and don't take into account your personal habits
• They are not specific to the area you live (and the fuel mix to make your electricity)
• They get filled out on-line and promptly forgotten

HOUSEHOLD CALCULATORS

We have prepared a detailed carbon calculator for households the Roanoke area.  If you are seriously interested in knowing your carbon footprint and actually doing something about it, we urge you to give this a try.  It is available in two formats:

EXCEL WORKBOOK - CLICK HERE TO OPEN OR SAVE THE EXCEL FILE
This workbook includes a worksheet to do your carbon footprint and also a worksheet to use to add up your monthly usage to get the annual total.  You can save this Excel file and use it on an on-going basis.

PDF FILE - CLICK HERE TO OPEN OR SAVE THE PDF FILE
This printable PDF file can be used to manually calculate your carbon footprint


What should your household carbon footprint be?  Regardless of your result, if you are an American household with a lifestyle anywhere close to the "norm" (that is, you live in a house or apartment with electricity, hot/cold running water, climate control; and you drive a car as your primary means of transport), your carbon footprint is way above the world's average.  We urge you to do your part by measuring your carbon footprint and getting started on a plan to reduce it.  Don't worry about the "averages" - we all need to do better.  Let's get on a "low carbon" diet now! 

BUSINESS/ORGANIZATION CALCULATOR

This calculator is somewhat more complex than the household calculator.  Its the format that has been used by companies and organizations in Roanoke's Clean and Green Business Coalition.  It is available only in Excel format - CLICK HERE TO OPEN OR SAVE THE EXCEL FILE

MOUNTAINTOP REMOVAL COAL MINING Are you concerned about the mining practices that are devastating Appalachia?  If you'd like to know what your impact is, use the carbon footprint calculator.  Once you've figured your electricity use, multiply the number of KWH used by 0.71 - that's how many pounds of coal were mined for your consumption of electric energy.

CLICK HERE TO LEARN how you can offset your carbon footprint and support the Cool Cities campaign in the Roanoke Valley.