Having an idea of our carbon footprint is an excellent way to be mindful of our impact. We often don’t process what we save by taking public transit a couple times a week vs. hopping in the car. Or actually executing on our meatless Monday! It is essential for us as individuals and for corporations to understand the environmental costs of our day-to-day activities. Having an understanding provides us all with an opportunity to reduce our impact. Providing us with a benchmark for conscious consumption.

What exactly is our carbon footprint?

By definition, this is the total amount of greenhouse gases emitted by an individual, corporation, community, city or country.

This volume of this footprint is generated by various activities these actors take part in, for example:

• Energy and materials used for production
• Transportation
• Fuel
• Food
• Clothing
• Waste disposal
• Import and export

At an organisational level, many companies are now mandated to report their carbon emissions. You may see articles in the news referring to Scope 1, 2 & 3 emissions levels. Here is what they mean:

Scope 1: direct emissions that are owned by corporations, for example, the fuel that is burned through their vehicles

Scope 2: indirect emissions that come from where the corporation is purchasing their energy, think utilities (hydro and gas)

Scope 3: indirect emissions that cannot be classified under scope 1 or 2, think suppliers and the emissions that are a result of the creation of their goods

Here is a visual!

What are greenhouse gases?

Most are familiar with CO2 (carbon dioxide), but there are others as well, such as Methane (CH4), Nitrous oxide (N20), and industrial gases.

One of our favourite tools to estimate your carbon footprint is the Foot Print Calculator. We encourage all to look and see where they currently are.

How many planets would be required if everyone were at the same level as you? How did you feel when you saw your score?

Once you see your score, you might feel several emotions: shock, disbelief, sadness, happiness or motivation! Whatever you are feeling, let’s run with motivation; there are many things we can do to lower our footprint.

What are some things we can do to reduce our impact?

• Try a meatless meal or day once a week.
• Take public transit!! This increases demand for these essential systems to work, and it is often cheaper and easier on the planet.
• Cold water wash & wait until you have a whole load of laundry
• shorter showers
• Going to the same place as your friends? Why not carpool!
• Remember to shut off your lights when you leave the room

What are you doing to reduce your carbon footprint?