What's Your Carbon Footprint?

Carbon footprint is a term that has come into more common usage in the last decade. What does it mean? Let’s take a closer look.

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Carbon footprint refers to the amount of carbon dioxide and other carbon compounds emitted due to the consumption of fossil fuels by a particular person, group, event, product or organization.

Typically, carbon footprint refers to the amount of greenhouse gases, especially carbon dioxide, released into the atmosphere by a particular human activity. Carbon footprint is usually measured as tons of CO2 emitted per year. This number increases when you add CO2-equivalent gases, such as methane, nitrous oxide and other greenhouse gases.

Consumption of fossil fuels and electricity play a large role in determining your carbon footprint.

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How to Calculate Your Carbon Footprint

Your individual carbon footprint can be affected by many factors. Fossil fuel use and electricity consumption play a major role in your carbon footprint. Online calculators help in providing rough estimates based on factors such as:

• size of your household
• efficiency of appliances
• how much you drive or fly
• what you eat
• how much you recycle

While this is an approximation and not perfect, this can give you a good way to measure your activities and thus know how much CO2 you generate via these activities and and to figure out steps you can take to reduce your carbon footprint.

You can estimate your carbon footprint using these tools:
https://www.carbonfootprint.com/calculator.aspx
https://www3.epa.gov/carbon-footprint-calculator/

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How can I reduce my carbon footprint?

Many daily activities such as electricity usage (home energy), car driving (transportation) and trash disposal (waste) all cause greenhouse gas emissions and contribute to your household's carbon footprint.

You can reduce your carbon footprint through your personal choices such as:

• driving more-efficient vehicles and maintaining existing vehicles
• using energy-efficient appliances
• insulating your home to reduce heating and air conditioning costs

Individuals and companies also purchase carbon credits to offset their usage. The money raised from this goes into projects such as planting trees or investing in renewable energy. Additional information and resources are available here: https://www.carbontrust.com/resources/guides/carbon-footprinting-and-reporting/carbon-footprinting

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Try it Out: Get a Rough Estimate of Your Carbon Footprint

Apple Reinvents Key Manufacturing Process for Aluminum, A Primary Component for Its Products

Apple is transforming the way its products are manufactured by reinventing the process through which aluminum is made. Aluminum is a key component of Apple products. You can see it in everything from MacBooks to iMacs and iPhones. Altering the process of how this material is made to be more environmentally friendly will have a huge impact on manufacturing all over the world.

Image via Apple

Conventional methods release carbon during the aluminum smelting process. A team of Apple engineers have created a new way of smelting, where oxygen instead is released. Working in close collaboration with two large aluminum companies, Alcoa Corporation and Rio Tinto Aluminum and the support of the United States and Canadian governments, the Apple team was successful in creating this new manufacturing method. The repercussions around the globe will be significant, as this removes a long-standing manufacturing process that released greenhouse gases.

Image via Apple

Image via Apple

Image via Apple

Image via Apple

We are very excited by this as well as Apple's overall commitment to the environment. Last month, Apple announced that its facilities and offices are all powered 100 percent by renewable energy.