MoneySavers & Green Products...

Ok, so let’s say I’m an average dude with a penchant for saving the environment. I know I want to reduce my carbon footprint, and I know that there are a wealth of carbon calculators available to me on various eco-friendly sites across the web. The question is: which one do I use? Which carbon calculators offer the most straightforward, easy-to-use, yet helpful and informative data? Well, I did some investigative net-surfing and tried to find out.

I quickly realized that this task wasn’t going to be easy. With so many options to choose from, and each calculator boasting a more thorough and accurate emissions estimate than the next, I was fairly discombobulated right off the bat. I was at first drawn to the most aesthetically pleasing sites, which lured me in with their bright colors and pretty pictures, most notably www.BeGreenNow.com and www.CarbonFund.org. Upon further inspection, however, I grew disenchanted. Both sites require an inordinate amount of math and, being a man who hasn’t really calculated anything since the SAT, I became a tad overwhelmed. Additionally, I don’t have any offhand idea about how many miles I’d traveled by plane in the last 12 months, or how many gallons of oil I’d used. Not only do many carbon calculator sites require arithmetic, they also demand a great deal of research. (Some less attractive, yet equally convoluted sites include www.CarbonFootprint.com, www.ZeroFootprint.com and www.SafeClimate.net). Besides, if you know the number of miles you’ve traveled by subway off the top of your head, chances are you already have a pretty good idea about your carbon impact, and probably wouldn’t benefit too much from a carbon calculator in the first place. No, I needed something simpler- a useful tool for the environmentally conscious layman who wants to make a small, personal difference.

The sites that I found to be the most effective were the ones that devised ways to estimate carbon emissions without asking users to provide obscure specifics, i.e. the kilograms of coal they use in a year. For example, averaging my monthly electric bill is a lot simpler than adding up kilowatt hours over a twelve month period. The sites that excel most at this technique are www.ClimateCrisis.net (not too surprising, since this site is run by the environmental guru himself, Mr. Al Gore), www.GreenTagsUSA.com, and www.Nature.org. Another useful tactic employed by these sites is that they estimate airline travel by asking approximately how many short, medium, and long flights you’ve been on in the past year, whereas some sites, like Be Green Now, require that you list not only all of your destination cities, but also the airport (and airport code!) you used during your travels. One particular feature I enjoyed on the Nature site was a handy little pie chart, breaking down your personal CO2 emissions and comparing them to the national average. Neat.

In short, if you’re looking for a carbon calculator, the simpler the better. One important thing to remember, though, is that these calculators provide an estimate- the results I received for my own emissions fluctuated significantly with different sites. The best course of action is to use carbon calculators as a compass to roughly gauge where you stand on the emissions scale, and then to be proactive about it. In other words, stop running up your electric bill whiling away the hours online and install an energy efficient lightbulb already.

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