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December 23, 2007

Comparison of Carbon Footprint Calculators? or of related environmental impact calculators?

January 11, 2008 04:16 PM EST

views: 67 | comments: 5

In response to a question submitted on one of my blog posts, I wonder if anyone here knows of any comparisons or validations of the various online environmental or carbon footprint calculators? One example provided by Addy is given here:

http://www.earthlab.com/

A Google search on "carbon footprint calculator" gave 605 THOUSAND results, though they aren't all different calculators, of course. Searching for comparison ... hasn't helped so far- lots of links to wade through

Here are some other methods:

http://www.carbonfootprint.com/calculator.aspx

http://www.nature.org/initiatives/climatechange/calculator/ (from the Nature Conservancy)

http://www.climatecrisis.net/takeaction/carboncalculator/

http://www.bp.com/extendedsectiongenericarticle.do?categoryId=9015627&contentId=7029058
(this is from the oil company named British Petroleum)

http://www.safeclimate.net/calculator/

http://green.yahoo.com/calculator/

http://footprint.wwf.org.uk

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/environmentandgreenerliving/actonco2/DG_067197 from the UK government

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Comments: 5

Cheryl R. Jan 11, 2008, 10:13pm EST

James, I have not seen any sites that compare carbon footprint calculators. I will let you know if do.

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James B. Jan 11, 2008, 10:23pm EST

Thanks Cheryl. I'll keep searching also. I found a site that ridicules them (junkscience).

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Sam Carana Jan 12, 2008, 3:06am EST

Interesting point. I haven't really tried it out a lot, but I can imagine there could be surprisingly different outcomes depending on what calculators one used. Has anyone tried it out? In most cases, the calculators are mainly added to inspire people to change. Cheers! Sam Carana

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Tim Nelson Jan 12, 2008, 12:09pm EST

I think they all agree.

1. Don't build a McMansion.
2. Don't live far from work.
3. Don't drive a car.
4. Do a dozen things that don't add up to much.

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James B. Jan 12, 2008, 2:44pm EST

Thanks Sam and Tim. A person asked this question on my environmental blog and I couldn't answer it, even after searching quite a bit. She was disturbed by the amount of carbon in her footprint, and wondered if it was numerically correct, as far as I could tell. The answer is probably "yes, more or less". I agree that these are not meant to be extremely precise calculators. However, architects do use pretty precise calculations in working out how to design green buildings, from what I can tell. But, those are well-defined systems with boundaries- less diffuse an issue.

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