Household Carbon Calculator

CoolClimate Network

This interactive simulation allows users to calculate their household carbon emissions based on travel, home usage, food, and shopping habits. Students will be alerted to how their usage and habits affect their total carbon emissions as compared to others in their zip code. Users are then provided a list of potential actions they can take to reduce their emissions.

Click to View

Notes from our reviewers

The CLEAN collection is hand-picked and rigorously reviewed for scientific accuracy and classroom effectiveness. Read what our review team had to say about this resource below or learn more about how CLEAN reviews teaching materials.

Consider having students use this tool at the beginning of a unit on energy usage and then again after 2-3 months to see how their emissions changed. Educator can also create a lesson plan around the "take action" tool, such as a school-wide campaign. Although carbon calculators provide eye-opening data, consider the sensitivity around students sharing household data with others. Discomfort may be avoided by using an anonymous submittal process (form, chart, etc.) when collecting class data to aggregate. Or students could engage in this activity as a classroom to calculate their class's carbon footprint as a whole, rather than focusing on individuals.
The topic of this resource is a household's or individual's carbon footprint. The calculator is presented without much context or instructions, but the user is guided through it. The calculator is based on a study published in 2014 so the science is about 10 years old, however the science is still fundamentally sound and the calculator is flexible enough to allow you to enter up-to-date values. This includes a section of assumptions (called "Settings") where you can put in current energy prices. Users of the calculator could go into great depth on different factors contributing to a carbon footprint, because many sections of the calculator offer an "Advanced" option. Passed initial science review - expert science review pending.
This resource includes no pedagogical scaffolding, however it is easy and intuitive to use as a teaching tool. The "take action" list at the end of the activity includes a small drop down menu for each task for more details, rebates, and incentives, and provides an avenue for further information to extend the activity. This resource is a tool that a teacher might use effectively in a lesson, allowing a teacher autonomy in how they build it into their lessons. The visual presentation of the chart that shows your household's carbon footprint and a comparison to similar households could be a good learning tool and potentially motivating for students, but a teacher would have to guide students through analyzing the chart. The chart at the end that shows different actions one can take could be illuminating for students.
The resource is easily usable with a computer and internet access. If a teacher is looking for a carbon footprint calculator to use in a lesson, this one is easy to use. However, if a teacher doesn't have a lesson in mind that requires a carbon footprint calculator, this resource may require more preparation to figure out the context and how to use it as a teaching tool.