Definitions, motivations, context, and the actions individuals, businesses, and governments are taking. Sixth graders can make a difference, so can you. This Carbon footprint 101 will help you move beyond the confusion to discerning your action.

This is part of a 24-article series for small businesses, their leaders & staff, and stakeholders interested in understanding how the alphabet soup of corporate citizenship concepts & systems fit together, and how they can contribute positively.

If you’ve read or watched any news source in the last 50 years, you’ve heard of increasing numbers of climate-change related crises — melting glaciers, floods & mudslides, vast wildfires, more frequent and stronger storms. You may also have noticed that the costs are disproportionately born by minority and poorer communities, exacerbating inequalities. More than 97% of scientists agree that global warming, and resulting disruptions to global water currents and weather, are largely due to human activity — industries’ operations, where & how we get energy and how much we use, how we get our food, etc, etc. To address climate change, individuals, businesses and governments are taking (or being pushed to take) steps to reduce their carbon footprint.

If you’ve taken a flight in the last couple years, you might have seen a checkbox asking if you want to donate to offset your carbon footprint. And, in reading the news, you’ve probably heard about the massive swirling “island” of plastic in the Pacific Ocean, or about sea animals eating plastic thinking the colorful bits were food (and dying from malnutrition), and resulting efforts to reduce plastic consumption and clean up what we’ve already created. You’ve also likely heard about global warming and various efforts to stem climate change. These issues are all linked and relate to human activity’s impacts on the natural world, from which we draw raw materials and food.

Maybe you’ve read about carbon emissions and the carbon credits/offsets market — it’s purpose, creation, innovativeness, and shortcomings. I’ll attempt to demystify — starting with a few definitions, sharing a bit of historical context, and then…

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