This project is based on a CO2 calculating spreadsheet developed by David Willms, which came out of an environmental initiative at Rockway Mennonite Church in Kitchener, Ontario. The goal is to raise awareness of environmental issues, particularly climate change and global warming. Interested people may want to follow up with my set of articles on world limits.
Note that you can also download the CO2 calculator spreadsheet form XLS file, in which case you can save it to your computer and compare multiple scenarios.
Everything that you type into this form stays on your computer, none of the information is communicated over the internet.
You will need the following information:
- Your car's fuel efficiency and distance driven. See the Energuide page on car efficiency to look up fuel efficiency values.
- What airplane flights you have taken, and how far. See this page for distance calculations.
- Your home electricity, natural gas, and fuel oil consumptions.
What assumptions does this calculator make?
- Only cabon-dioxide is calculated, however there are other greenhouse gases, such as methane, nitrous oxides, sulphur oxides which are not included.
- If you heat your house with wood, the carbon is assumed to be in a closed cycle and sustainable, therefore zero carbon-dioxide is assumed.
- It is only your household carbon-dioxide that is computed, however many of the things which you purchase was made by industry which emitted carbon-dioxide on your behalf.