carbon footprint

noun

Updated on: 25 Apr 2018

Definition of carbon footprint

: 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

Recent Examples of carbon footprint from the Web

Which means drinkers get a buzz with a lower carbon footprint.

— mark byrne, GQ, "You Could Use a Style Upgrade," 21 Apr. 2018
Eschewing Michelin stars for a mission bar, proprietress Michelle Courtright gave up the riches of advertising to instead tackle climate change, food waste, and carbon footprint issues in the restaurant industry.

— jason tesauro, Esquire, "Minneapolis Is the Food World's Best Kept Secret," 31 Jan. 2018
The researchers claim their material is as strong as traditional bricks and concrete, yet biodegradable with half the carbon footprint of concrete.

— liz stinson, Curbed, "Researchers are developing a sustainable concrete alternative made of desert sand," 30 Mar. 2018
Business leaders and resorts have made a big push to get skiers out of their cars to ease traffic, cut air pollution, and reduce the ski industry’s carbon footprint.

— eric niiler, WIRED, "Ski Resorts Fight Climate Change With Snow Blowers and Buses," 26 Mar. 2018
Composting also plays a major role in shrinking a person’s carbon footprint, both by decreasing production of methane gas and reducing fossil fuel consumption from waste transportation.

— sarah baird, Vogue, "Fighting Climate Change With Food Scraps: Why Composting Is Easier Than Ever," 26 Mar. 2018
That’s a lot of transportation piling onto the carbon footprint, and the net-farms also have their own challenges.

— nancy dahlberg, miamiherald, "Florida, the Salmon State? It could happen soon | Miami Herald," 18 Mar. 2018
Another reason to eat seasonally is concern for Mother Earth, and the heavy carbon footprint that comes out-of-season produce.

— grant butler, OregonLive.com, "A year in simple, seasonal Pacific Northwest cooking," 15 Mar. 2018
The city’s fund trustees started looking at fossil-fuel investments last year, measuring the carbon footprint and hiring a consultant to make recommendations.

— Bloomberg.com, "New York City, Albany Part Ways on Divesting Fossil-Fuel Stocks," 27 Feb. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'carbon footprint.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.