Frequently Asked Questions:
The City of Toronto is partnering with Zerofootprint to launch Zerofootprint Toronto, the first-ever community-wide initiative aimed at engaging citizens in the fight against climate change. The program, which provides free access to the Zerofootprint Toronto web-based carbon calculator and social network, was to rolled out on February 26, 2008 and will take place over two years.
Below we’ve answered some of the most common questions about the Zerofootprint Toronto Calculator.
For more information, please visit us at http://www.zerfootprint.net or write to us at: mailto:info@zerofootprint.net
How do I get started using Zerofootprint Toronto Calculator? To calculate your carbon footprint access the calculator at: http://toronto.zerofootprint.net You can then register by providing your email address (username), password, and postal code. This information is required in order to set-up a unique account for you, to identify your neighbourhood for statistical purposes, and to store your responses for your later use.
Next, you will need to answer some questions about your lifestyle. For example, the calculator will ask you how much energy and water you use at home, how far you drive your car and how many flights you have taken in the last 12 months. (It will be handy to have your electricity and water bills, as well as your odometer reading and frequent flyer statements.) Don’t worry if you don’t have all of your bills – you can use estimates instead.
In less than 15 minutes you will have an accurate picture of how much carbon you emit and some of the ways that you can reduce your carbon footprint and save money at the same time. It will also allow you to compare your footprint to averages of other groups, cities or countries.
The calculator is divided into 3 Question & Answer sections – Travel, Food, and Home – which will help to solicit the data required to calculate your footprint. The Tips and Summary sections will show you how to reduce it.
Who is Zerofootprint? Zerofootprint is a Toronto-based Canadian not-for-profit organization founded in 2005. Our mission is to empower individuals and communities to fight climate change in measurable and practical ways.
Zerofootprint develops applications and initiatives to measure and manage carbon and ecological footprint for the purpose of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Our applications are available over the Web and use social networks to help every person, organization, city and community know where they stand in the climate crisis and how they can make a difference in the aggregate. For more information, please visit http://www.zerofootprint.net
What is the Zerofootprint Toronto Calculator? The Zerofootprint Toronto Calculator will take the details of your lifestyle and work out your ecological and carbon footprint – the impact that you make on the environment because of the way you live. Once the Calculator has quantified you footprint, it will advise you on how to reduce it through tips. You will be able to run “what-if” scenarios based on the tips you like. These simulations will illustrate the reduction in your footprint, if you decide to employ them and set them as a goal. It will allow you to compare your achievements with other individuals’ or groups’, and will enable you to form or join groups that set ecological goals and challenges. And it will enable you to track your successes. Most importantly, the Calculator will enable you to see what an enormous impact the small changes that you make can have when aggregated with those of others.
Does the Zerofootprint Toronto Calculator also have a Marketplace and Events Calendar? The Zerofootprint Calculator will help you reach your sustainability goals by linking you to retailers of green products and services in your area. The Zerofootprint Market helps promote sustainable commerce in your community, whether you are looking for organic produce or bamboo eco-friendly products you will find it in the Market. In addition, the Events directory will help you find events, lectures and other meetings about the environment.
What is an Ecological Footprint? Ecological Footprint is a measure of how much biologically productive land and water an individual, population or activity requires to produce all the resources it consumes and to absorb the waste it generates using prevailing technology and resource management practices. Not only does this give us an idea of the impact we are making, it also provides a way of measuring the sustainability of our lifestyles. If we add up the Ecological Footprint of everyone on the planet, and it comes to more land than there is available, then clearly our present collective lifestyle is unsustainable.
What is a Carbon Footprint? Carbon footprint is a measure of the greenhouse gases an individual, population, product or activity emits. The ‘carbon’ in carbon footprint, refers to carbon dioxide (CO2) and greenhouse gases in general (which are converted to carbon dioxide equivalents for convenience of calculation), the accumulation of which in the atmosphere leads to global warming and climate change. We produce CO2 emissions, directly or indirectly, whenever we drive our cars, heat our homes, or in a hundred other ways as we go about our daily lives. The primary cause of CO2 emissions is the burning of fossil fuels such as oil and coal, while deforestation for logging or farming is responsible for about a quarter of all emissions.
Our carbon footprint, calculated in tonnes of CO2, gives us a measure of how much we are contributing to global warming, and enables us to set goals for reducing our emissions and tracking our success.
What is the Goods and Services Footprint? In a developed country, about half of your greenhouse gas emissions, and a similar proportion of your Ecological Footprint, comes from the production of the goods and services as well as the building and maintenance of regional infrastructure. These impacts, from factories or sewage treatment plants for example, are independent of your lifestyle. These indirect impacts are not captured by the questions in this calculator – you don’t have much direct control over them – but they are an integral part of everyone’s Ecological and Carbon Footprint. To share these impacts with others in your community, Zerofootprint determines a ‘per capita’ impact of these processes specific to the region in which you live, called the ‘goods and services Footprint’. This goods and services Footprint varies widely by region (some regions have more factories or infrastructure than others) and can be toggled on or off on your results graph. Turning this toggle on gives you a more complete picture of your impacts, while turning it off shows you what you can reduce through your everyday actions.
How are the CO2 emissions calculated? Zerofootprint calculations are based on transparent industry standards, use Environment Canada and other reputable data sources, and are in conformity with the Greenhouse Gas Protocol (www.ghgprotocol.org). In this way you can be certain that our figures are in keeping with internationally endorsed standards of reporting and accounting that are backed by both the World Business Council for Sustainable Development and the World Resources Institute, two of the most prestigious non-governmental organizations in the world. This protocol is used internally by many companies concerned about their carbon costs, including Ford Motor Company, IKEA International, and Sony Electronics.
How is my personal information collected and used? When you register on the Zerofootprint Toronto Calculator, we collect your email address (username), password, and postal code in order to set up a unique account for you, identify your neighbourhood for statistical purposes, and to operate the website in an efficient and effective manner.
When you choose to use the Zerofootprint Toronto Calculator to calculate your carbon/ecological footprint, we collect certain “lifestyle” information from you in order to calculate your carbon/ecological footprint, including information on your consumption and use of transportation, food, energy and other products and services. This information will be used solely for the purpose of calculating your carbon/ecological footprint and will be maintained in anonymous, aggregated form that is not identifiable with you. For further details, please refer to our detailed Privacy Policy.
How do I get started using Zerofootprint Toronto Calculator? To calculate your carbon footprint you can first register at: http://toronto.zerofootprint.net by providing your email address (username), password, and postal code. This information is required in order to set-up a unique account for you, to identify your neighbourhood for statistical purposes, and to store your responses for your later use. Next, you will need to answer some questions about your lifestyle. For example, the calculator will ask you how much energy and water you use at home, how far you drive your car and how many flights you have taken in the last 12 months. (It will be handy to have your electricity and water bills, as well as your odometer reading and frequent flyer statements.) Don’t worry if you don’t have all of your bills – you can use estimates instead.
In less than 15 minutes you will have an accurate picture of how much carbon you emit and some of the ways that you can reduce your carbon footprint and save money at the same time. It will also allow you to compare your footprint to averages of other groups, cities or countries.
The calculator is divided into three Question & Answer sections – Travel, Food, and Home which will help to solicit the data required to calculate your footprint. The Tips and Summary sections will show you how to reduce it.
How is the Zerofootprint Toronto Calculator organized? The calculator is structured in the following way: 1. Profile – create and maintain your own personal profile 2. Calculator – divided into three Question & Answer sections – Travel, Food, and Home which will help to solicit the data required to calculate your footprint. • Travel – presents travel related questions • Food – presents food related questions • Home – presents home related questions • Tips – demonstrates practical ways and resources to help you reduce your footprint • Summary – summarizes your responses and goals 3. My Community – allows you to form or join groups and post or join discussion boards.
You can also find other useful links within the calculator to a range of services including: • Marketplace: Your guide to the world of green commerce in the Toronto area • News: Your window to the latest green news • Events: Your guide to green events happening in the Toronto area • Kids: The Zerofootprint KidsCalculator designed especially for kids
When I’m answering the questions, how do I get additional help on each question? Hovering over the information icon with your mouse will provide you with additional information that will help you answer that question. Clicking on this icon will provide you with further background information including the method of calculation and sources of data.
Are there other resources I can use to help me reduce my footprint? In the tips section, many tips have links to other related services / information that can guide you through the next steps in realizing your carbon reduction goals. You can also find other useful links to a range of services including: • Marketplace: Your guide to the world of green commerce in the Toronto area • News: Your window to the latest green news • Events: Your guide to green events happening in the Toronto area • Kids: The Zerofootprint KidsCalculator designed especially for kids
Do I have to add my real name to my profile? The only information that is required is your email address, password, and postal code. Other information, such as your first and last name, nickname, address, photo, and neighbourhood are optional. Note: your exact address is never shown to any other user.
Can I register on the Zerofootprint Toronto Calculator but keep my personal information private? By checking the appropriate box on the user profile, every user can make their individual profiles private, such that other calculator users will not be able to view any individual profile information.
Is my address or exact location ever shown to other users? Your exact address is never shown to any other user. Even if you select ‘Show Profile” on your profile, your address will still be hidden from all other users.
Are my lifestyle responses (answers to the questions) visible to others? Your answers to any of the questions are not shown to any other users. Only aggregated information (i.e. total footprint, total goal amount), goals you’ve signed up for, and your networks are shown.
Can I invite other people to use the Zerofootprint Toronto Calculator? Yes – please invite all your friends, family and colleagues to join Zerofootprint Toronto!. You can invite others to use the calculator by clicking “invite a friend’, accessible from the left bar. In addition, you can also invite people to join a group by click ‘Invite others’ from within a group.
Can anyone use the Zerofootprint Toronto Calculator? Do you have to live within the City of Toronto? Anyone in the world can use the Zerofootprint Toronto Calculator. However, the emissions data is specific to Toronto and many of the tips have been localized to include Toronto based content. Users from outside the City of Toronto may prefer to use the generic calculator at www.zerfootprint.net.
Is there any monitoring of the site to identify inappropriate behaviour and/or obscene language within discussion groups, etc.? This aspect of the site is managed by Zerofootprint and enforced by existing policies and procedures of the City of Toronto. Zerofootprint and the City of Toronto will act promptly to remove any inappropriate and/or obscene language, and disable user access for offenders.
Is the Zerofootprint Toronto Calculator available in other languages? Yes, the Zerofootprint Calculator is currently available in English and French, with other languages in progress. To access the calculator in another language click on ‘Customize’ and then select the appropriate language.
I have feedback – who should I send it to? Click “help us improve” along the left bar and forward any comments, questions, or suggestions.
Where can I get more information? For more information, please visit us at http://www.zerfootprint.net or write to us at: mailto:info@zerofootprint.net