Over recent years, society has been exposed to the idea of the carbon footprint. The carbon footprint is a measure of CO2 emissions from an individual, family, or business over a daily, weekly, monthly or yearly time frame. People who lead very busy lifestyles tend to have a greater carbon footprint due to the transport and power consumption they require.

First of all, the term carbon footprint refers to a measurement of greenhouse gases released by human activities based on the amount of carbon dioxide units that is produced. This helps scientists and government decision makers gauge how severe a particular human activity affects the environment by contributing to the so-called Greenhouse Effect.

We can all reduce this impact by using less electricity, gas, oil and water and by buying materials locally to cut down on transportation. Flying less, driving smaller cars, recycling and buying food that is in season all have a positive impact on your carbon footprint.

However don’t think that recycling has no effect on the environment because there is a carbon cost to recycling although less than manufacturing a new item. If you are carbon neutral you are offsetting the amount of carbon dioxide you produce by providing (or getting others to provide) a positive impact on the environment.

Tree planting is a good way to offset carbon dioxide production as is the use of renewable energy from wind, solar power or wave power and the use of renewable sources of fuel such as sugarbeet, oilseed and all other bio-fuels. If you can balance the amount of CO2 produced by these offset methods you are considered to be carbon neutral.

Carbon offsets is definitely the way forward for supporting renewable energy, energy conservation or reforestation projects that either displaces prevent carbon. They enable individuals and businesses to take accountability for their carbon footprint. Carbon emissions need to be tackled by planning to prevent them from being emitted, rather than emitting and then attempting to offset. For instance you can go to the greatestplanet.org, this site held carbon footprint projects, they do the best to keep our environment more green than before. The projects are Protecting Biodversity in Tibet and Solar Energy in Kenya. Greatest Planet helps you neutralise your CO2 emissions by offsetting your unavoidable residue. Offsetting works by investing funds in forestry projects, renewable energy, methane collection & combustion, energy efficiency, destruction of industrial pollutants, and agricultural byproducts projects that absorb or prevent the release of CO2 equivalent to your Carbon Footprint. And by commit supporting this project, you’ll receive a certificate confirming that you have purchased these offsets, as well as GreatestPlanet bumper sticker testifying that you have become carbon neutral, and you’ll also be entered automatically into our monthly draw to win a ‘Segway’ human transporters, valued at $12,000 (£6,000) each.