Personal Carbon Emissions Inventory

Using a variety of different resources it is fairly straightforward to estimate your own personal CO2 emission inventory due to transportation and home use. Doing this made me realize just how much air travel can contribute. I also attempted (albeit crudely because of lack of information) to estimate the energy use of the different activities, which is interesting when placed in the context of the 2000 Watt society.

For air travel I used Terrapass. While not recommended for their carbon offsets purchasing program, they do have a more user-friendly air-travel emissions calculator.

For home use I used my electricity bill and EPA's personal emissions calculator, which is comprehensive.

The results are available on a MyEmissions Twiki Page

I am aware now that I am omitting a number of important emissions, namely those due to the manufacture of goods and food that I buy, and those from my workplace (think about 7 floors of corridor lighting burning bright at night and at weekends!). I would appreciate any guidance as to how we might calculate some of these emissions.

Department of Atmospheric Sciences members can edit the Twiki page and add their own emissions.

Regards

Rob