At The Budget Ecoist, we’ve given you a plethora of tips on how to reduce your carbon footprint. You may ask, though, what exactly is the carbon footprint and how do I know how large mine is in the first place? Well, simply put, your carbon footprint is the amount of tons of CO2 emissions per year that you and your household release through household energy, food, services, transportation, and overall lifestyle. Now that you know the definition, you can work more precisely towards decreasing it. The folks over at the University of California at Berkeley have created an online tool for figuring out your carbon footprint–it’s called the Cool Climate Carbon Footprint Calculator. Answer all the survey questions, and they’ll give you a number.
Why don’t you set a goal for your household of a lower carbon footprint? If you haven’t done so already, we suggest altering your home and lifestyle to be more green and eco-friendly using all the tips we’ve given you. After you’ve installed your energy-conserving appliances, lightbulbs, low-flow showerheads and more, re-calculate your carbon footprint. Hopefully, you’ll be closer to your goal! If we all made a conscious effort to lower the footprint, we’ll help save the environment.