The High School Sustainability Guide gives students an explicit calculation that can deepen their understanding of their community, how it functions, and most importantly how to improve upon it. Just by taking that initiative you are already proving yourself to be a powerful 21st century change-maker.
What is a carbon footprint? Many activities in our everyday lives generate carbon emissions, whether it is getting from point a to point b, having a meal, or even just switching on the lights. A typical school day includes all three of these actions and many more. Learning how to quantify the wear and tear your school is making on the environment into illuminating numbers is incredibly empowering.
What makes up a school’s carbon footprint?
Here is a breakdown of how energy is used within the average school (from kindergarten to grade 12) in the United States (the numbers range depending on what climate zone the school is in): 
https://www9.nationalgridus.com/non_html/shared_energyeff_schools.pdf
Check out the “Food Transportation and Packaging” tab and the “Utility Footprint” tab to calculate your school’s impact and see how your school contributes to climate change.
ABOUT THE CALCULATORS
The HSSG has four carbon calculators that each measure a different component of a school’s carbon footprint. Each calculator has unique instructions and requires different data on your school’s energy and waste consumption.
To calculate the footprint of your school’s utilities (the gas and electricity usage of your school’s buildings) click here.
To calculate the footprint of the packaging and transportation of your school’s food, click here.
WHERE TO NEXT?
We recommend tackling the Utility Footprint and the Food and Transportation Footprint separately (or split your group up into two sections to complete them simultaneously).
Utility Footprint
1. You will need to access your school’s utility bills in order to calculate the utility footprint (Duh!). This can seem a bit tricky but, don’t worry, we provide detailed instructions on how to get them on the Utility Footprint page!
2. Once you have the bills, you’ll organize your data and input your numbers into the calculator (instructions provided). There are two separate calculators, one for electricity and one for gas.
3. The calculator will reveal the amount of carbon produced annually from your school’s utilities!
Food and Transportation Footprint
1. Collect data on the type and amount of food packaging your school uses.
2. Input your data into the appropriate sections of the calculator (further instructions are provided on the page) and BOOM, you have your results!!
3. For the transportation footprint, you’ll collect data on the type of vehicles your school uses and the amount of miles they travel per day.
4. The calculator will find the emissions produced from the vehicles! Simply multiply this value by the number of days the vehicles are used at your school.
Tip!
Before beginning the carbon calculation process, we suggest that you form a group of like-minded people as well as trusted and knowledgeable teachers/mentors. This is important… there is power in numbers!