What is a carbon footprint?
A carbon footprint can be defined as 'the total set of greenhouse gas emissions caused directly and indirectly by an [individual, event, organisation, product] expressed as CO2e' (Source: The Carbon Trust).
Put simply, it's the amount of carbon we – or our houses, business, cars, and so on – put into the atmosphere.
The full carbon footprint of a business encompasses a wide range of emissions sources, from direct use of fuels to indirect impacts such as employee travel to work or emissions from other organisations within the supply chain.
How much do we emit?
According to statistics, in the UK each person puts 9.4 tonnes of CO2 (carbon dioxide) into the atmosphere each year. By those figures, we’re far from the worst offenders in the carbon stakes, but certainly not the best either. But a figure like 9.4 tonnes is fairly meaningless by itself.
It's really just a way of measuring the impact we have on the environment by the amount of greenhouse gases, or carbon dioxide, we produce. That gives us a standard to start from. Beginning with that, we can work to lower the amount of greenhouse gases we generate in each aspect of our lives, which can help save the planet.
So what is an ideal, or at least acceptable, level of CO2 emissions? In a perfect world, we'd all be carbon neutral – that is, have no CO2 output at all. But that's impossible.
The worst offenders (with the biggest carbon footprint)
The US emits more CO2 than any other country. In Britain, our emissions per person are about half those of the US. The task ahead is for all of us to lower our carbon footprint, reduce pollution and save the planet. That means a drastic reduction in our emissions, by close to 90% from our current output, which won’t be easy to achieve.
It means we need to change our lifestyles somewhat – although perhaps not as much as you might imagine – and be very aware of the impact of everything we do.
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