Carbon footprint tips and tools
You can help reduce your ecological footprint by considering how the environment factors into your everyday decisions. To calculate your personal ecological footprint, use the Global Footprint Network’s Footprint Calculator.
The Province of BC's LiveSmart BC program includes numerous resources to help you be more efficient and research incentive programs for home, work, and on the road. Tools include the Carbon Calculator to measure your carbon footprint and compare it to the provincial average.
Home Energy Planner
The BC Home Energy Planner is a free online interactive tool that helps British Columbia residents understand their home's energy efficiency, carbon emissions, and potential for improvement and cost savings.
The planner uses public data and information gathered through user survey questions to assess how well a home uses energy. Homeowners will learn about:
- the home’s energy score (measured in gigajoules per year);
- what kinds of home-energy upgrades will have the biggest impact;
- how home-energy upgrades can help prepare people for extreme weather events; and
- resources to help upgrade the home.
The planner is available to homeowners and renters. It can be used with single-family homes, as well as most townhouses, duplexes/triplexes, rowhouses and manufactured homes. It does not support condominiums, apartments or other multi-unit residential building types.
By completing a quick online survey, you will gain valuable insights into your home and how it can be improved, as well as available rebates to offset the cost of the upgrade.
To make your home more comfortable and decrease your energy use, try the Home Energy Planner today.