Dictionary

carbon footprint en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (US) audio

Etymology

Coined in a 1999 BBC Vegetarian Good Food article and after the 1990s term ecological footprint and popularized by a 2005 advertising campaign for fossil-fuel company BP in order to shift blame for climate change onto individual consumers. Modelled after the ecological footprint concept developed in the 1990s.

Meanings

1. A measure of the amount of carbon dioxide produced by a person, organization or state in a given time.
   • House insulation is another way of reducing energy consumption and carbon footprint, as well as double glazing and draught-proofing. 1994, Peter Simmons, Petrol to Gas: A Fully Illustrated Guide to Complete D.I.Y.Conversion for the Motorist, Password Publishing, page 14:
   • Also true is that building HS2 will produce considerable carbon emissions. However, those emissions pale into insignificance if this claim from the business case is true: "To put HS2's carbon footprint in perspective, the estimated total carbon emissions from both building and operating Phase 1 for a full 120 years produces the same amount of carbon as just one month of the UK's road network." 2020 May 6, Philip Haigh, “Just one more stop on the long journey to HS2 fulfillment [sic]”, in Rail, page 65:
   • But the oil companies would like you to think that’s how it works. It turns out that the concept of the “carbon footprint”, that popular measure of personal impact, was the brainchild of an advertising firm working for BP. 2021 August 23, Rebecca Solnit, “Big oil coined ‘carbon footprints’ to blame us for their greed. Keep them on the hook”, in The Guardian:
   • Usage of local products has boosted the income of local farmers, created more work opportunities and lowered carbon footprints. Previously, business owners in Jiasian competed with each other and fought over business opportunities. 2018, Lena Dominelli, editor, The Routledge Handbook of Green Social Work, Routledge, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 134:

Forms

Hypernyms

ecological footprint

Relateds

petrocarbon · carbon tax · carbon market · carbon emissions trading · digital footprint

Synonyms

carbon cost

Translations (22)

es huella de carbono (measure of carbon dioxide produced by someone) · hu karbonlábnyom (measure of carbon dioxide produced by someone) · ko 탄소 발자국 (measure of carbon dioxide produced by someone) · sv koldioxidavtryck (measure of carbon dioxide produced by someone) · cmn 碳足印 (measure of carbon dioxide produced by someone) · hu szénlábnyom (measure of carbon dioxide produced by someone) · az karbon izi (measure of carbon dioxide produced by someone) · de Kohlenstoff-Fußabdruck (measure of carbon dioxide produced by someone) · pl ślad węglowy (measure of carbon dioxide produced by someone) · de CO2-Fußabdruck (measure of carbon dioxide produced by someone) · ja カーボンフットプリント (measure of carbon dioxide produced by someone) · tr karbon ayak izi (measure of carbon dioxide produced by someone) · fr empreinte carbone (measure of carbon dioxide produced by someone) · fi hiilijalanjälki (measure of carbon dioxide produced by someone) · it ecoimpronta (measure of carbon dioxide produced by someone) · ru углеро́дный след (measure of carbon dioxide produced by someone) · et süsiniku jalajälg (measure of carbon dioxide produced by someone) · pt pegada de carbono (measure of carbon dioxide produced by someone) · cs uhlíková stopa (measure of carbon dioxide produced by someone) · ga lorg carbóin (measure of carbon dioxide produced by someone) · cmn 碳足跡 /碳足迹 (measure of carbon dioxide produced by someone) · uk вуглеце́вий слід (measure of carbon dioxide produced by someone)

wikipedia: Encyclopædia Britannica · wikipedia: Guardian Media Group · wikipedia: The Guardian · wikipedia: BBC · wikipedia: BP