Before thinking about efficient ways to reduce our impact on the planet, we need to know exactly how much our different behaviors impact our carbon footprint.
Our International Student Footprint Calculator will allow you to do just that! The questionnaire is divided into four parts: home energy and appliances, food, personal purchases and transportation.
Answer the questions as honestly as possible and keep an eye on your amount of CO2 release per year at the bottom of the screen as you continue. You may be alarmed at times by the results!
Advanced Calculator
designed for secondary school and beyond
Basic Calculator
designed for middle school (ages ~10-13)
- Our calculator now has options for a basic or advanced calculation, improved mobile compatibility, additional question options (including solar panels and electric vehicles) and includes updated data! Students from registered classes can choose their school!
- We offer — and strongly suggest that you use — the ability to register at the site, so that your data will be automatically saved as you progress. That way you can complete the calculator questionnaire in more than one sitting, and return anytime to explore all of the features of the calculator and to update your footprint calculation based on lifestyle changes.
- If you should encounter any problem with the new calculator, please email Jason Hodin (larvador[at]uw.edu) and he will try to help.
- Once you start the questions, keep in mind that it can take 25-30 minutes or more for English-proficient students to complete the Advanced version (50 minutes for those for whom English is a second language). The Basic version is about 2/3 as long as the Advanced version.
- We suggest that students fill out this Calculator Prep Worksheet in advance, it will make the online calculation faster and more accurate. (DOC format or PDF format)
- You may wish to download our class assignment to reflect on what you discover as you use the calculator.
- (updated Apr 2020) You may also wish to download this pictorial key to the features of our calculator (or this one for our mobile/tablet version).
- Teachers and students may wish to download this source document with all of the sources and assumptions available in a single pdf file for all questions in the calculator. Note that all sources/assumptions are also available on demand during the calculations when you press the documentation button, which looks like this:
- Privacy policy: we will never share any personal information derived from footprint calculations or any other I2SEA effort with any third party. We further suggest that students register using their first name and last initial, especially on the discussion platform. We utilize anonymous footprint data for educational purposes only - students will never be personally identified by their footprint data to anyone except the student themselves.