Sustainability : Art, Design and Practice (at MICA)

Before you start find a copy of your last energy bill. It will tell you how much gas and electricity you used during the past month. It will also tell you what your average annual usage is (mine was in very small print 3/4 down on right side of page). If you can get this its good as you will get a more accurate total from sites that get specific. If you dont get a bill, find out if your heating is gas,oil or electric. You will also need to know about how many miles you are in a car each year (week x 52 ). Some sites will ask for miles in buses/trains. Also you’ll need to think about how many flights you take per year. This is important as airline travel can be an enormous portion of an individuals footprint.

Here are a few sites I can recommend, there are many out there so look around for one that suits you. 

http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/emissions/ind_calculator.html

This is the governments EPA website, its thorough and gives what look like reliable calculations 

http://www.empowermentinstitute.net/lcd/lcd_files/LCDcalcNet.html

This site is one of the more versatile, simple to calculate changes 

http://www.carbonfootprint.com/calculator.aspx

 This is one of the few sites that give information on different forms of public transportation 

 http://www.bp.com/extendedsectiongenericarticle.do?categoryId=9015627&contentId=7029058

This is BP Oil’s site, interestingly its one of the best and has the most clear graphics. It is very easy to see the impact of changes in behavior and energy usage. 

http://www.conservation.org/act/live_green/carboncalc/Pages/default.aspx?gclid=CPTh_6DZ85ACFShsGgodwHx23A

This site has sexy graphics and is designed by a organization that sells carbon offsets. Interestingly it gave me the highest total of any calculator.