How to calculate your carbon footprint
Your carbon footprint is the total greenhouse gases your lifestyle causes in a year, measured in tonnes of CO₂-equivalent (tCO₂e). Here's how to work it out without a spreadsheet.
The five things that matter most
For most people, the bulk of the footprint comes from a handful of categories. Estimate each and add them up:
- Travel. Car mileage and flights are often the single biggest slice.
- Home energy. Heating, cooling, and electricity — lower if you're on renewables.
- Diet. Red meat and dairy carry far more emissions than plants.
- Goods & services. Everything you buy has an embodied footprint.
- Shared infrastructure. A baseline everyone carries — roads, hospitals, public services.
A quick method
- Estimate your yearly driving, flights, home energy, diet, and spending.
- Apply a published emission factor to each (or let a calculator do it).
- Add them, plus a small baseline for shared public infrastructure.
- Compare to the average — 4 tCO₂e in some countries, 16+ in others.
Prefer to skip the arithmetic? Our carbon footprint calculator does all five in about two minutes and gives you a tonnes-per-year number.
Then what?
A number is only useful if you act on it. Reduce where you realistically can — the biggest levers are usually flights, driving, and diet — then offset the remainder with a monthly subscription that funds verified climate projects.
FAQ
- What is a carbon footprint measured in?
- Tonnes of CO₂-equivalent per year (tCO₂e) — a single unit that combines CO₂ and other greenhouse gases by their warming effect.
- What's the average carbon footprint?
- It varies hugely by country — roughly 4 tonnes per person in some places and over 16 in others. The global average is around 4–5 tonnes.
- How accurate are footprint calculators?
- They're good estimates, not audits. They use published average emission factors, so treat the result as directional — useful for deciding where to cut and how much to offset.
- What's the fastest way to shrink my footprint?
- For most people: fly less, drive less or switch to electric, eat less red meat and dairy, and move to renewable home energy. Offset what's left.