What is a Carbon Footprint?

"What to Know about Carbon Footprint"

A carbon footprint has historically been defined by Championne as "the total sets of greenhouse gas emissions caused by an organization, event, product or person."

However, the total carbon footprint cannot be calculated because of the large amount of data required and the fact that carbon dioxide can be produced by natural occurrences. It is for this reason that Wright, Kemp, and Williams, writing in the journal Carbon Management, have suggested a more practicable definition: 

"A measure of the total amount of carbon dioxide (CO₂) and methane (CH₄) emissions of a defined population, system or activity, considering all relevant sources, sinks and storage within the spatial and temporal boundary of the population, system or activity of interest. Calculated as carbon dioxide equivalent (CO₂e) using the relevant 100-year global warming potential (GWP100)."

Ways to Reduce Carbon Footprint:

• Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to accurately determine the current carbon footprint identification of hot-spots in terms of energy consumption and associated CO2-emissions where possible, changing to another electricity company to switch to buying electricity from renewable sources (from wind turbines, solar panels or hydroelectrical plants -or- from nuclear power plants optimisation of energy efficiency and, thus, reduction of CO2-emissions and reduction of other GHG emissions contributed from production processes. 

• Identification of solutions to neutralise the CO2 emissions that cannot be eliminated by energy saving measures. This last step includes carbon offsetting; investment in projects that aim at the reducing CO2 emissions, for instance tree planting.