Several mobile tracking apps help people figure out which actions create the most emissions and how to avoid them.
This idea of a carbon footprint comes up a lot in news coverage about personal climate impact.
The concept is simple: It includes anything that you add to planet-warming emissions, ranging from the gas consumed by your car to the energy required to produce the food you eat. Reducing your carbon footprint means contributing less of these gases to the atmosphere.
But figuring out how to lower your carbon footprint is more complicated. That’s why several mobile tracking apps help people figure out which actions create the most emissions and how to avoid them.
Researchers have found that people often misjudge how their actions contribute to climate change, but can do better with more information. Apps are one way to learn more about emissions and build better habits.
So, I downloaded three popular ones. Here’s how it went.
Two of the apps started by calculating my personal footprint. And I’ll be honest. I thought I was going to look pretty good. I was wrong.
I take my climate impact seriously. I only eat meat on weekends, and it’s almost always low-impact options like chicken and turkey. I share my car (a plug-in hybrid) with my spouse, and we both work from home. I compost, I buy in bulk and I bring plastic containers to the restaurant for leftovers, so I produce very little trash. I mean, that’s a pretty standup environmental citizen, right?
Earth Hero and Pawprint both told me I emit around 17 tons of pollution every year. Earth Hero estimates the average American emits nearly 22 tons, so I was below that. But my footprint is still three times higher than the average person globally.
The biggest culprits were the energy spent heating and cooling my old house along with twice-yearly flights I take to see my family 2,000 miles (3,200 kilometers) away.
So, armed with guilt and panic-induced enthusiasm, I set out to reduce my impact, with the help of the apps.
Earth Hero and Pawprint both started with a survey about eating, travel and spending that yielded the carbon footprint calculation.
