The Worlds most simple and accurate carbon calculator is this:

The internet is rife with calculators that ask you the year make and model of your vehicle, but this not the most accurate way to calculate your CO2 emissions-or the easiest. 

The best way to calculate your vehichles CO2 emissions requires two important pieces of data: your cars’ your gas mileage, and the distance you have driven in one year. Simply divide the distance by your cars gas mileage and this will give you the number of gallons you use in one year.  Multiply the number of gallons by their weight in the table above and this is the footprint of your vehicle.  To convert into metric tonnes, use the column for k and the conversion of 1 metric tonne equals 1000kg.  Thats it, now you can have the power of the worlds most accurate carbon calculator at your fingertips!

Calculating the carbon footprint of a boat is tricky because unlike a car, a boat does not have an odometer. Instead of using distance traveled to calculate fuel consumption, you need to know the number of hours your boat engine has been running. To calculate the carbon footprint of your boat, you must know the fuel efficiency of your motor in gallons per hour and the amount of time the engine is running.

Fortunately there is a simple way to execute this calculation. All you need to know is the horse power of your boat. According to Brett Becker in Boating Life Magazine, for every unit of horse power, the average 4-stroke engine will burn .4 lbs of fuel (2 stroke equals .6lbs per hp/hr). Gas weighs 6lbs per gallon, and when burned produces 19.56lbs of CO2. After a simple unit conversion we find that a boat motor will have a carbon footprint dependant on the number of horsepower and time:

• 4-stroke engine: 1.3lbs co2 per horsepower/hour
• 2-stroke engine: 1.9lbs co2 per horsepower/hour

For example, a 200hp Honda Fourstroke motor running at full throttle 3 hours will produce about 780lbs of climate changing CO2. Because most boaters don’t cruise their boat at full throttle, this figure needs to be reduced to match your boats cruising horsepower. Fight global warming, offset your boat!

Political campaigns keep detailed records of their income and expenditures, and must make these figures available to the public. Public disclosure of campaign finance is necessary to keep our democracy health, and the data can also be used to get a good estimate of a political carbon footprint.

If you are a politician, you can calculate your carbon footprint and offset it directly with this tool we have created:  Carbon Neutral Campaign Packet

The purpose of calculating a Carbon footprint for a political campaign is accountability. With all the talk about global warming, what are politicians really willing to do? Is leadership just venting a lot of hot air, or can a campaign “put its money where its mouth is.”

Competitive campaigns happen so fast that it is difficult to implement a green strategy in-house. They will need to offset, but how much is need for a campaign to claim “carbon neutral?” Here are simple guidelines that we at Standard Carbon believe should be adopted:

Footprint Calculations: The rule is estimation and the method is overestimation.

1. Use data from the state government’s election authority (public disclosure commission or secretary of state) if you want to estimate your opponents carbon footprint. For federal elections, the Federal Election Commission is the best source.
2. Include direct and indirect emissions sources: Transportation, rent/utilities, in-kind contributions, volunteer travel, direct mail, postage and events, yard signs etc.

Offsetting is a natural choice for reducing the carbon footprint of a campaign. It allows the candidate and the political organization time to focus on their very narrow mission: to win votes. The question is who will lead by puting their money where their mouth is, and who is just full of hot air?