As most companies need to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, so they turn to a carbon footprint calculator. Organizations can now much more easily recognize their greenhouse gas emissions, put in place measures to reduce and then assess benchmarks to see how they are progressing.

Within the past several years, there have been many efforts to reduce carbon emissions. Among them are the U.S. Clean Air Act and The Climate Registry, which is a nonprofit agency that sets uniform standards for calculating, verifying and reporting greenhouse gas emissions. Membership in The Climate Registry is voluntary, however most North American states, provinces, territories and native sovereign nations are participating.

A carbon footprint calculator allows data about daily facility operations to be entered and processed, with the expectation that this will contribute greatly to greenhouse gas emission reduction. Several major areas play a role in harmful gas emissions — energy use, waste generation, purchased materials and transportation, to be specific.

It is imperative that carbon emissions are reduced, and that businesses measure their carbon footprint accordingly. As the future health of our planet depends on it and research shows that certain gases deplete the ozone layer, steps must be taken now to slow this damage. Gases are expected to remain in the atmosphere for hundreds of years hence.

Gases proven to cause most harm to the atmosphere are measured by a carbon footprint calculator. The villains of the piece include carbon dioxide, hydrochlorofluorocarbons, chlorofluorocarbons and perfluorocarbons. Scientists believe that these gases contribute to warming, to extreme heat waves, rising sea levels and corresponding harm to all manner of life. Thus immediate action is required to stop these damaging effects.

Under EPA requirements, a business can now use a carbon footprint calculator to identify the extent of their gas emissions, creating a management plan, establish goals and report their findings. Companies that have multiple buildings or locations will find the calculator to be of particular benefit.

Data is entered into a carbon footprint calculator representing Emissions Factors and Global Warming Potential, for each source. Sources are defined as being either direct or indirect, with direct emissions being those classified from equipment or other sources owned or operated by a company and indirect emissions being used by a company during its daily operations, but supplied by another source. The former will cover commercial refrigeration and air-conditioning or heating, ventilation and air-conditioning systems, whilst the latter may involve the use of electricity or heat. Total emissions are factored by multiplying EF and GWP at each source.

With the complexity of the data that needs to be input to a carbon footprint calculator, most companies with AC/HVAC systems in offices, stores, hospitals, warehouses, etc., are turning to refrigerant management programs that are computerized and include a carbon calculator to handle the tedious monitoring, tracking and reporting tasks with ease.