A carbon footprint is a “measure of the impact human activities have on the environment in terms of the amount of greenhouse gases produced in our day-to-day lives through burning fossil fuels for electricity, heating and transportation.
The carbon footprint is a measurement of all greenhouse gases we individually produce and has units of tonnes (or kg) of carbon dioxide equivalent.
A carbon footprint is made up of two parts
- The primary footprint is a measure of our direct emissions of CO2 from the burning of fossil fuels including domestic energy consumption and transportation (e.g. car and plane). We have direct control of these.
- The secondary footprint is a measure of the indirect CO2 emissions from the whole lifecycle of products we use – those associated with their manufacture and eventual breakdown. To put it very simply – the more we buy the more emissions will be caused on our behalf.
Source – carbonfootprint