Few People Know Their Carbon Footprint

I am not the best researcher, but I can’t find anyone tracking how many people know their carbon footprint. That knowledge would seem to me to be elemental. I believe that the world has to work on this problem. Otherwise we won't get far enough or fast enough to a low carbon future. We can’t just leave it to “the experts” and the government. Maybe it’s because I am from Silicon Valley and believe in the power of the “long-tail”. I believe in what Mahatma Gandhi said: "Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it. "

I've used some figures in what appears to be the definitive report by Katherine Hamilton and team,"State of the Voluntary Carbon Markets 2008” to make an estimate. The number I come up with is shockingly low. Here is my calculation based on their findings:

• If you assume half the retail offset volume was corporate and half consumer that would imply 240,000 people in the U.S. offset an average footprint of 7.5 tons/year in 2007.


• Indications are that 2008 could have grown by as much as 240% over 2007 and so it could mean that half a million people offset their footprint last year.

We have a long way to go though before we are at a reasonable base “consumer engagement” case, say 1% of the population offsetting their vehicle emissions.