If you’ve been considering calculating your carbon emissions, or already have and aren’t exactly sure what it all means, never fear. Guttman Renewables is making the process as transparent as possible, breaking down all the calculations so that you know exactly how this process works. Here is a step-by-step guide on how we perform a carbon offsets calculation and determine what carbon emissions your company needs to offset.
Step One: Determine Type of Fuel
The first step to determining your carbon footprint is finding out what type—or types—of fuel you’ve been using. Whether you use gasoline, diesel, or something else, different kinds of fuel translate to different amounts of carbon dioxide emissions. By learning exactly what it is you’re burning, we know which carbon dioxide coefficients (we use the conversions determined by the Energy Information Administration (EIA)) to apply to the next step of our process.
Step Two- Determining Amount Of Fuel
The next step is pretty simple: determine how much of a set type of fuel you’ll be burning. We’ll ask you for the closest possible estimate of fuel consumed, then multiply that by the corresponding carbon coefficient for that type of fuel.
Step Three – Put it All Together
Whether you’re a large over-the-road transportation company or a small business housed in an office building, chances are you are using more than one type of fuel. Therefore, our calculator makes space for you to input every type of fuel and the responding number of gallons used over again until you’ve covered all the bases. Then, it simply adds them up.
Step Four – The Presentation
The final and most important step: you are presented with your Carbon Emissions amount based on the above data. Now, you have a tangible number to associate with your emissions, and hopefully help you realize the impact of your carbon footprint. You also can now be aware of just how much emissions you will need to work to offset. You can take this calculation and purchase the corresponding number of carbon offsets to help make your company carbon neutral.
Now that you know how it works, you can do your own carbon offsets calculation! Head to our Carbon Emissions Calculator and use it for yourself! To learn more about carbon offsets or for any other Guttman Renewables questions, contact a sustainability expert at 724.489.5199.
