Carbon Footprint - By Area

By Area

The Average Carbon Footprint in the United States vs. World The average U.S. household carbon footprint is 48 tons CO₂e per year. The single largest source of emissions for the typical household is from driving (gasoline use). Transportation as a whole (driving, flying & small amount from public transit) is the largest overall category, followed by housing (electricity, natural gas, waste, construction) then food (mostly from red meat, dairy and seafood products, but also includes emissions from all other food), then goods followed lastly by services. The carbon footprint of U.S. households is about 5 times greater than the global average, which is approximately 10 tons CO₂e per household per year. For most U.S. households, the single most important action to reduce their carbon footprint is driving less or switching to a more efficient vehicle. Cement production and carbon footprint resulting from soil sealing was 8.0 Mg person-1 of total per capita CO₂ emissions (Italy, year 2003); the balance between C loss due to soil sealing and C stocked in man-made infrastructures resulted in a net loss to the atmosphere, -0.6 Mg C ha-1 y-1.