Carbon footprint

How it is used

Used in business, marketing and everyday speech. You calculate, measure, reduce or shrink your carbon footprint. Companies talk about the carbon footprint of a product (product carbon footprint, PCF) or of their whole operations. In technical reports 'GHG emissions' is often more precise.

Example sentences

1. We calculated the carbon footprint of each product, from raw materials to delivery.

2. Switching to rail freight could cut the carbon footprint of our logistics by a third.

Common collocations

• reduce your carbon footprint
• calculate the carbon footprint
• product carbon footprint
• carbon footprint of

Related terms

• emissionsGases or particles released into the air, for example from vehicles, factories, power plants or farms. In climate work the word usually means greenhouse gases.
• CO2eShort for carbon dioxide equivalent: a unit that expresses the warming effect of different greenhouse gases as the amount of CO2 that would cause the same warming.
• life cycle assessment (LCA)A method for measuring the environmental impacts of a product or service at every stage of its life, from raw materials and production to use and disposal.
• water footprintThe total volume of fresh water used to produce a product, or used by a person, company or country, including the water used along the whole supply chain.
• Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissionsThe three categories used to report a company's greenhouse gases: Scope 1 from sources it owns, Scope 2 from the energy it buys, and Scope 3 from the rest of its value chain.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

• carbon footprint · Energy & Renewables

More terms: Emissions and Carbon

• greenhouse gas
• carbon dioxide
• fossil fuel
• net zero
• carbon neutral
• decarbonization
• carbon offset
• methane
• carbon sink
• emission factor
• carbon credit