Carbon footprint

Compensate your emissions

Despite all our efforts to reduce our consumption and to recycle, we still need energy to heat our homes and offices, for lighting, for transportation etc. Because most of the energy we use is from fossil origin such as oil, gas and coal, every time we use energy we release carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere and impact the environment; this is our “carbon footprint”. It is important to note that this is the case when we use electricity as well, unless it is generated from renewable sources such as hydraulic, wind, solar or in a nuclear plant. You can contact your electricity provider to know the source of the electricity you consume.

To reduce your impact on the environment the best way is to calculate your carbon footprint, to reduce your emissions and to compensate what can not be eliminated

Carbon calculator

Here is a simple way to calculate your carbon emissions. It is based on latest findings of the British department for environment, food and rural affairs (DEFRA) and the US environmental protection agency.

To keep it simple and understandable, we have restricted the calculation to the main sources of emissions. There exist much more complex models that take into account all sort of sources of carbon such as the transportation of the food we eat, or the emissions produced during the manufacture of the clothes we wear. In our calculation we have taken into account these other sources by arbitrary adding 20% to the result; this will be reffered to as "industrial emission".

Compensation is sometimes critizised as it can be perceived as a way of “buying the right to pollute”. Compensation by itself is definitively not the only solution, but if it part of a global approach to reduce the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions; compensation has a major role to play in the fight against climate change.

Witzara offers you the opportunity to offset your carbon footprint, by compensating your carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Learn how here.