A plain-language magazine on carbon footprints, offsets and climate action, written for households, small businesses and students.
Measuring carbon, and what to do with the number
Plain-language carbon footprint, offset and emissions guides. Measure what counts, understand what an offset really retires, and rank the changes that cut the most.
Start with the sections
Three sections, from measurement to action
Each section opens with an index of its guides. Pick the measurement, the offset market, or the changes that reduce emissions.
01Measuring a Footprint
How a carbon footprint is built: the activity data, the emission factors, and why the boundary you choose changes the total.
02Offsets and Credits
Offsets and credits separated, the path from purchase to retired credit, and how to read a carbon claim before you trust it.
03Cutting Emissions
The changes that cut emissions most, ranked: home energy first, then transport, then the path a small business can follow.
Section 1 of 3
Measuring a Footprint
How a carbon footprint is built: the activity data, the emission factors, and why the boundary you choose changes the total.
Measuring a Footprint
Carbon Footprint Calculator
Estimate a household carbon footprint from electricity, heating, car mileage, flights and waste, and see which input changes the yearly total the most.
Five inputs, one annual estimate, and the sources behind it.
Measuring a Footprint
Household Carbon Footprint
See which household activities count toward a personal carbon footprint, from home energy and driving to food and waste, and where those estimates come from.
Home energy, driving, flying, and the softer lines.
Measuring a Footprint
Business Carbon Footprint
A plain guide to a company carbon footprint: what falls in scope 1, scope 2 and scope 3, which data to collect and why the boundary changes the total.
Scope 1, scope 2, scope 3: what sits where.
Section 2 of 3
Offsets and Credits
Offsets and credits separated, the path from purchase to retired credit, and how to read a carbon claim before you trust it.
Offsets and Credits
How Carbon Offsets Work
Follow what happens when you buy a carbon offset: the project, the registry, the retired credit and the tonne of CO2 that stands behind the claim.
From payment to a retired credit with a serial number.
Offsets and Credits
How Offsets Are Verified
Learn how offset projects are verified, what registries record, why additionality and permanence matter and how to check a certificate yourself.
Additionality, permanence, and the registry record.
Offsets and Credits
Types of Offset Projects
Compare the main carbon offset project types: clean energy, reforestation and avoided deforestation, and methane capture, with their strengths and their risks.
Clean energy, forests and methane, with their risks.
Offsets and Credits
Reading Carbon Labels
Read a carbon label or a company claim without being misled: what a product footprint covers, what carbon neutral means and which wording to question.
Carbon neutral, net zero and the words in between.
From the archive
Guides that keep their historical addresses
This domain published a carbon consulting site from 2008 to 2014, with footprint calculators, offset guidance and an education programme. These guides answer the questions those pages answered, at the same addresses.
Restored guide
Carbon Footprint Calculator
Five inputs, one annual estimate, and the sources behind it.
Restored guide
How Carbon Offsets Work
From payment to a retired credit with a serial number.
Restored guide
How Offsets Are Verified
Additionality, permanence, and the registry record.
Restored guide
Types of Offset Projects
Clean energy, forests and methane, with their risks.
Restored guide
Home Energy Changes That Cut Emissions
Insulate first, then controls, then the system at replacement.
Restored guide
Becoming a Carbon Neutral Business
Five steps a small business can actually follow.
Section 3 of 3
Cutting Emissions
The changes that cut emissions most, ranked: home energy first, then transport, then the path a small business can follow.
Cutting Emissions
Home Energy Changes That Cut Emissions
Rank the home changes that cut emissions most, from heating and insulation to appliances and lighting, with the running costs and payback to expect.
Insulate first, then controls, then the system at replacement.
Cutting Emissions
Driving and Transport Emissions
Work out how much driving and flying add to a footprint, compare car, rail and air, and see which transport changes actually move the yearly total.
Distance and efficiency together, and the flight that dwarfs both.
Cutting Emissions
Becoming a Carbon Neutral Business
A step by step path for a small business to cut emissions, offset the rest and make a carbon neutral claim that stands up to scrutiny.
Five steps a small business can actually follow.
Cutting Emissions
Carbon Training and Careers
See what carbon accounting courses and training cover, which roles hire for these skills and how to build a first greenhouse gas inventory as practice.
Standards, arithmetic, inventories and the roles that hire.
Cutting Emissions
Carbon Questions Answered
Short answers to common carbon questions: offsets versus credits, personal versus business footprints, costs, additionality, double counting and where to start.
The short answers, with links to the long ones.
The reference shelf
Primary sources worth a bookmark
The Carbon Ledger sells nothing and answers to no offset provider. These are the public sources this magazine leans on: national emission factors, the accounting standard, the registries and the bodies that judge them.
Outside this site
EPA Household Calculator
The United States Environmental Protection Agency household calculator and the assumptions behind its emission factors.
National factors and method, openly documented.
Outside this site
Greenhouse Gas Protocol
The accounting standard behind scope 1, 2 and 3, with the guidance documents published openly for anyone to read.
The rulebook most reporting builds on.
Outside this site
Verra
A major standard and registry for carbon projects, publishing its methods and the public records of credits issued and retired.
Methods and registry records in public.
Outside this site
Gold Standard
A standard and registry for climate and sustainable development projects, with its project documents available to check.
Project documents open to inspection.
Outside this site
ICVCM
The Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market, which publishes core carbon principles and assesses standards against them.
Principles that judge the standards themselves.
Outside this site
International Energy Agency
Energy data and outlooks that explain how electricity grids are changing and what that means for emissions factors.
Where grid emission trends come from.
The desk in pictures
Five views from the guides
Five photographs from the guides below, each with the page that explains the scene in full.
Field note 1
The bills set the boundary
Home energy starts with a year of meter readings, and the household guide shows how each line is built.
Field note 2
Distance and efficiency together
A car footprint depends on miles and fuel economy together, and a single flight can outweigh both.
Field note 3
Follow the registry entry
A verified offset leaves a public record; the verification guide shows how to read it yourself.
Field note 4
Insulate before the boiler
The home energy guide ranks the measures that cut most, with the payback each one needs.
Field note 5
Five steps a shop can follow
A small business can measure, reduce, offset and report honestly, one year at a time.