Let's Do This!
The average American emits 10,000 kg of carbon per year. We can do better.
Estimating your Carbon Footprint and Reduction Target
At a most basic level, your carbon footprint is a function of your household income. The more money you have the more you buy and the higher your footprint. Our goal is to help you determine a reasonable carbon emission reduction.
Average per person carbon emissions in the US is 10,000 kg per year or 30 kg per day. Emissions vary based on lifestyle which is strongly correlated with income. We believe a 10% reduction of individual emissions, about 3 kg/day, is achievable for most people without causing hardship. A 10% reduction by all the people that understand the threat of climate change will have real global impacts. (Read Your Vote Does Not Count.)
On the right is a chart estimating the kilogram reduction based on annual income and a commitment to a 10% emission reduction. This is not the most accurate way to assess your carbon footprint or set your reduction target, but it is the most simple. Pick your number and head on to Commit Now!
If you want a more accurate estimation method, move on to the next section.
Pick your 10%
Student: 0.5 kg/day
Household income below 50K per year = 1 kg/day
Household income between 50 and 100 = 2 kg/day
Household income between 100 and 200 = 3 kg/day
Household income between 200 and 500 = 10 kg/day
Household income over 500K = 50 kg/day
Taylor Swift type of lifestyle = 2000 kg/day
I would like to have an easy graphic here with income, annual carbon emissions (10,000 or 50,000) and then daily reductions (10%) targets. Note the annual emissions are not calculated but you can figure that out.
Calculating your Carbon Footprint
You might have heard of the term Carbon Footprint. It often refers to a product like a grocery bag or a pair of shoes. Individuals can also estimate their carbon emissions using a variety of carbon footprint calculators. These are more accurate than the simple income based carbon calculator we showed you earlier, but it takes a little more time and some math. As we noted earlier, the average Carbon Footprint of someone living in the United States is about 10,000 kilograms per year or about 30 kilograms per day. But emissions vary widely for a variety of reasons.
Carbon emissions come primarily from the burning of fossil fuels. There are two broad categories of carbon emissions: direct emissions and indirect emissions.
Direct emissions refer to the fossil fuel energy (and subsequent emissions) you purchase and use directly. This is the electricity and natural gas used in your home, and the gasoline you purchase and burn in your vehicle, your boat, or your lawnmower. It is also the emissions you create by flying in a plane. For an average person, Direct emissions might look something like this:
Transportation~4000 kg/yr
Electricity~1300 kg/yr
Natural Gas~2000 kg/yr
Indirect emissions are the emissions from the burning of fossil fuels used to produce everything we consume. Emissions are produces when producing the food you eat, the clothes, gadgets nad appliances you buy. Emissions are also produced from data centers that function when you are using social media or watching Netflix or other streaming services. All the products we buy require the use of fossil fuels. Average indirect emissions might look something like this.
Diet~1500 kg/yr
Consumption~1500 kg/yr
For the purists, there is another category of emissions that account for about 33% of US emissions. These emissions are for things which are outside of our individual control. These are emissions from our military, the building of roads and bridges, schools, hospitals and government centers, and other things. If these were considered, the per capita emissions in the US are about 14,000 kg/year.
Some of you may want to calculate your carbon footprint by hand. This involves tracking all of your home energy inputs (gas and electric) along with the gasoline used for your car or truck. In addition you would track all of your purchases. This is cumbersome, but I am aware of several people that enjoy this activity.
An easier option is to use a carbon footprint calculator. These calculators all require different inputs of things like miles per year driven, size of home, etc. These are still not perfect but get closer to your actual footprint with a little less work.
There are many calculators available but I prefer CFCalc because it is the one I created :) and I have verified that the results are reasonable.
When you are comfortable with your annual carbon footprint (kg per year), divide that number by 3650 to get your 10% daily reduction target. You can then move on to Commit Now!
I think a nice graphic of direct and indirect would be good..
Digging Deeper into your Footprint
Transportation is likely your largest source of emissions. This is where you will have the most impact.
Home emissions make up about 1/3 of your emissions. See what the big contributors are and what changes are most meaningful.
Do I get more points if my recycle bin is full?
If you like math and want to spend more time learning how to track theses emissions we have a couple of short tutorials for you.