carbon footprint

noun

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

Examples of carbon footprint in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

There’s another company on the West Coast called Diamond Foundry that is growing perfect diamonds aboveground using solar power; there’s no carbon footprint. — Rachna Bhasin, Harper's BAZAAR, "Cracking Fashion's Code," 25 May 2017 Entrepreneur Pashon Murray, who started Detroit Dirt, a composting and waste collection company that wants to change the city's carbon footprint, shares her vision of the Detroit to come. — Julie Hinds, Detroit Free Press, "'Detroit: Comeback City' documentary is personal, and that's a good thing," 1 July 2018 The chain promised to pay particular attention to the areas that make up the biggest part of its carbon footprint -- beef production, restaurant energy usage and sourcing and packaging and waste. — Zlati Meyer, USA TODAY, "McDonald's plans to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 36% by 2030," 20 Mar. 2018 My carbon footprint has expanded approximately 3,509 times since the baby was born! — Kim Fusaro, Woman's Day, "Having A Baby Is Bad For The Planet!," 2 Sep. 2010 Additionally, because these are plastic and BPA free (as well as multi-use), you are guaranteed to lower your carbon footprint. — Taylor Mead, House Beautiful, "These Stainless Steel Reusable Drinking Straws Are Selling Rapidly On Amazon," 10 Aug. 2018 The association is so strong, in fact, that for groups making any more than $40,000 per capita, a 10 percent increase in wealth results in a carbon footprint increase of 13 percent. — Chelsea Harvey, Scientific American, "Global Tourism Has a Bigger Share of Carbon Emissions Than Thought," 8 May 2018 Leaks from natural gas drilling operations could offset many of the gains natural gas provides in shrinking the carbon footprint of energy production. — Umair Irfan, Vox, "A major anti-fracking ballot measure in Colorado has failed," 7 Nov. 2018 Reducing water usage, increasing recycling rates, reducing our carbon footprint. — Jennifer Maloney, WSJ, "PepsiCo’s Indra Nooyi on Why She’s Leaving and What’s Next," 6 Aug. 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.