Or, why I’m not using the EPA’s carbon footprint calculator
Today’s the day; you’re going to calculate your carbon footprint! Where do you begin?
The obvious things come to mind first: the gas in your vehicle, maybe the gas you use to cook. Then there’s the electricity you use–but wait, how much of that is powered by coal and how much by nuclear, solar, or wind? That’s something to look up.
What about food waste? That emits carbon as it decomposes. What about the bagel that you bought for lunch? Carbon was emitted to produce that. What about the jacket in your closet? Or the ibuprofen in the cabinet, the toilet paper, the shoes? The plastic packaging on your groceries? Your groceries themselves?
This is exactly the problem that I ran into when trying to calculate my total carbon footprint. My solution is: think like a business.
When calculating their total carbon emissions, many businesses use a framework developed by Greenhouse Gas Protocol, a partnership that creates international reporting standards for greenhouse gas emissions. In the GHG Protocol, carbon and other greenhouse gas emissions are broken down into three classes.
- Scope 1: All direct GHG emissions
- Scope 2: Indirect GHG emissions from consumption of purchased energy, heat, or steam
- Scope 3: Other indirect emissions, such as the extraction and production of purchased materials and fuels, transport-related activities in vehicles not owned or controlled by you, electricity-related activities not covered in Scope 2, outsourced activities, waste disposal, etc. (Thanks to the GHG Protocol Frequently Asked Questions page)
I like this framework because it breaks down carbon emissions in terms of how direct they are. If I apply this to my own life, it looks something like this:
- Scope 1: All direct emissions from transportation (car, flights, bus, etc.)*
- Scope 2: All emissions from electricity use (appliances, water heater, A/C and heat)
- Scope 3: The emissions that it takes to make, deliver, and dispose of everything that I buy (products, food, medicine, services, events, waste, etc).
*Under the GHG Protocol, emissions from flights or buses would be in Scope 3, since I don’t directly own them. I’m rolling all transportation into Scope 1 for simplicity’s sake.
There are many carbon emissions calculators online that are free to use, and one that I’ve often heard referenced is the EPA’s Carbon Footprint Calculator. It mainly deals with Scope 1 and 2 emissions, with only waste considered for Scope 3.
For me, this isn’t going to cut it. While reducing your transportation and electric emissions is a worthy first step, I’m looking to reduce ALL of my emissions.
Instead, here are two calculators that I’ve been impressed by:
CoolClimate Calculator by CoolClimate Network
The CoolClimate Network at University of California, Berkeley is researching carbon footprint analysis and human behavior, then taking that knowledge and developing software and social programs to let people make informed choices about their footprints. Their method of “consumption-based greenhouse gas accounting” lets you estimate your shopping carbon footprint based on how much money you spent on certain categories (data provided by CEDA 3.0 Climate–not the latest version, but definitely better than gathering the data and coding the whole thing by myself). By entering the number of calories from different types of food, you can calculate your food footprint as well. To top it all off, the site lets you see the average carbon footprint of the households in your zip code, and lets you compete by pledging to take actions to cut your emissions.
Carbon Footprint Calculator by Carbon Footprint
This UK-based consulting and carbon offsetting group has a free, individual carbon calculator with a good methodology section. This calculator also uses dollar amounts to estimate indirect carbon footprints from shopping, though the factors that are used are based on numbers in the UK and might not apply to the United States. While I’ll probably use the CoolClimate calculator for greater accuracy, I like the layout and documentation of this calculator.
The next step is to gather all of my records for 2019 to get the data I need for the calculator. This will provide a 2019 baseline for my carbon reduction calculations!
The next post will detail the calculations for the 2019 carbon baseline. See you then!
Green Footprint 