Use Philadelphia’s online Carbon Emissions Calculator

From the Next Great City newsletter: 

As part of the City of Philadelphia’s effort to become the greenest city in America and meet the Greenworks goal of planting 300,000 new trees by 2015, the Mayor’s Office of Sustainability launched Erase Your Trace, an on-line tool developed by the U.S. Forest Service, that will allow Philadelphia’s residents and businesses to calculate their carbon emissions and then offset them by making a donation to the Fairmount Park Conservancy for local tree planting.

Besides offsetting carbon emissions, trees planted through Erase Your Trace will help reduce pollutants such as nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, ozone and particulate matter. Trees also reduce the urban heat island effect, decrease stormwater runoff, and increase property values.  As Katherine Gajewski, Philadelphia’s Director of Sustainability says, this is “a win-win-win for Philadelphians, our environment, an our climate.”