Carbon Calculators

1 - I can do better 2 - Jury's out 3 - Pretty darn good 4 - Splendiferous 5 - Awesometastic by 3 people | Log in to rate

Ranked #186 in Business, #11,457 overall

We've been gathering a comprehensive list of carbon calculators, eco calculators, ecological footprint calculators and the like.

Here's a partial list of what we've found so far. It's very much a work in progress, so please check back as we:
- add more calculators;
- categorize them by type;
- add descriptions and ratings;
- (and add more sustainability lenses! Coming soon: Ecological Footprint Calculators, Water Calculators, Energy Calculators, and more)

You can also rate these calculators yourself! See below.

Your perspective is important, since calculator performance varies _so_ widely -- by as much as 3x with the same data. So let's be careful out there!

(Tip o' the hat to Mike Wallace of Wallace Partners and Dave Jaber of Natural Logic for their substantial contributions to this lens.)

Carbon footprints 

Each of us, in every action we take, in every purchasing decision we make, engages a chain of events (actually, a supply chain of events) that generate a series of unintended as well as intended effects.

Climate change -- the consequence of greenhouse gases emitted, as a result of energy use, materials choice and other factors -- is something we can each affect, in small and hopefully large ways as well.

Measuring your carbon footprint can give you a clear understanding of where you are (what the scale of your contributions is) and how you compare with similar organizations (which we hope will motivate fruitful collaboration and sharing of best practices - and a bit of friendly competition to help us all improve more quickly).

It can be a complicated undertaking. These calculators may not do the trick for large or complex organizations which may want the help of consulting organizations like Natural Logic. But for individuals, small organizations - and even large organizations getting started - these calculators can be a good way to start!

For a web-based solution to tracking energy and carbon use in buildings, see OpenEco.org, our collaborative project with Sun Microsystems. For a comprehensive, web-based sustainability dashboard that handles the full environmental, social and economic implications of business strategy, see Business Metabolics. (And click here to learn about regional sustainability dashboards for your city, county or region.)

Reader Feedback 

Let us know what you think -- and about calculators we may have missed! (Tell us what you like about it -- and be sure to include an accurate URL!)

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  • Reply
    ivanoats ivanoats Mar 5, 2009 @ 1:36 am
    very cool Gil!
  • Reply
    Fred Cook Fred Cook Mar 4, 2009 @ 11:22 pm
    Great contribution Gil!
    We need things this smart to help create comprehensively smart markets that can guide us toward true sustainability, eco-logical justice would be great too - though possibly more controversial. I'm imagining an evaluation system as an adjunct to complementary currencies to start with. People who are interested in complementary currencies tend to be open to ideas like "re-localization". Factoring in the systemic impacts of consumer choices could give us a more useful measure of "value". The ideal would be one where both buyer and seller could prioritize their values for the transaction (a) to find each other, (b) to negotiate "fair" value for the exchange. What is the best-so-far version of this? What would it even be called?
  • Reply
    Gil_Friend Gil_Friend Feb 15, 2009 @ 12:50 am | in reply to Maggie Clarke
    Thanks, and sorry for the tardy response (and the fact that this list isn't keeping up with the market!). There are quite a number of new carbon tools, including "hybrid I/O" carbon calculators that beat an organization's budget (or profit and loss statement) against national input-output economic tables to come up with an in-the-ballpark carbon footprint estimate. Is that the kind of "demand for products and packaging" you mean? or are you thinking of a city's appetite for actual stuff? I'd be happy to talk further with you about this, if interested. (Best by email: gfriend at the domain of the Natural Logic site linked at the way upper right of this page. Thanks!
  • Reply
    Gil_Friend Gil_Friend Feb 14, 2009 @ 9:33 pm | in reply to Comfortdoc
    Thanks, Comfortdoc!
  • Reply
    LMW LMW Oct 2, 2008 @ 12:50 am
    Where is the 3 Phases Renewables calculator??? They have a great one that is easy to use: http://www.squidoo.com/carboncalcs
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by Gil_Friend

Gil Friend is CEO of sustainability consulting firm Natural Logic, and author of The Truth About Green Business (FT Press). He blogs at http://blogs.n... (more)

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