carbon footprint

noun

: the amount of greenhouse gases and specifically carbon dioxide emitted by something (such as a person's activities or a product's manufacture and transport) during a given period

Examples of carbon footprint in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

New laws demand that companies openly disclose a product’s carbon footprint, repairability and recyclability. — Arthur Zaczkiewicz, Footwear News, 7 July 2026

Still, if only there were a way to capture a fraction of that processing power, the carbon footprint of computing could meaningfully shrink. — New Atlas, 2 July 2026

This story was updated on July 2, 2026 to add more context on Google’s total carbon footprint and emissions. — Jeremy Hsu, ArsTechnica, 2 July 2026

The company also reported a 20% bump in its supply chain emissions, which account for three-quarters of its total carbon footprint. — Tim McDonnell, semafor.com, 1 July 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1999, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for carbon footprint

• blueprint
• imprint
• misprint
• newsprint
• nonprint
• preprint
• reprint
• clint
• dint
• glint
• hint
• lint

Kids Definition

carbon footprint

noun

: the amount of greenhouse gases and especially carbon dioxide given off by something (as a person's activities or a product's manufacture and transport) during a given period