🌍 Carbon Footprint Calculator
Enter your monthly electricity, weekly driving, and natural gas use to estimate your annual carbon footprint by category and as a total in kilograms and tonnes of CO₂-equivalent.
🌍 Estimate Your Footprint
What is a Carbon Footprint Calculator?
A carbon footprint calculator estimates the greenhouse-gas emissions tied to your everyday energy use. It converts electricity, driving, and natural gas into a common unit — kilograms of CO₂-equivalent — so you can see which part of your life pollutes the most.
Enter your usage and, if you know them, your local emission factors to get a per-category and total footprint. These are estimates for planning that help you target the changes — solar, an EV, a heat pump — that cut the most carbon.
❓ Frequently Asked Questions
How is a carbon footprint calculated?
Each activity is multiplied by an emission factor. Electricity use is multiplied by your grid's kilograms of CO₂ per kWh, miles driven by your vehicle's emissions per mile, and natural gas by the emissions per therm. Adding the three annual totals gives your footprint in kilograms and tonnes of CO₂-equivalent per year.
What grid emission factor should I use?
It depends on how your electricity is generated. A coal-heavy grid can exceed 0.7 kg CO₂ per kWh, while a grid rich in solar, wind, and hydro may be under 0.2. The 0.4 default is a rough average; your utility often publishes its own figure, and switching to solar can drop your electricity emissions toward zero.
How can I lower the numbers this shows?
The biggest levers are usually electrifying transport with an EV, adding rooftop solar or buying clean power, and reducing natural gas with heat pumps and better insulation. Re-run the calculator with those changes to see how much CO₂ each one removes from your annual total.
Are these carbon figures exact?
No — they are estimates for planning, based on average emission factors rather than your exact grid mix or vehicle. Treat them as a directional baseline for comparing choices, not a certified carbon-accounting report.