How to Check Your Flight’s Carbon Footprint with an App

It’s well-known that air travel is a major source of carbon emissions. For travelers who want to do something about their flight’s carbon footprint, the options are limited: Invent a more fuel-efficient jet engine (not easy); travel by other means, or not at all (not always feasible); or offset carbon emissions in some way.

Option three is the most realistic, but the challenge comes when determining how much to offset, and how. A new feature from travel app TripIt aims to demystify this question by showing travelers their flight’s carbon footprint and offering suggestions for offsetting it.

TripIt uses the Greenhouse Gas Protocol to calculate travelers’ footprint. The GGP says it offers the world’s most widely used greenhouse gas accounting standards, which are used by American and European government agencies to track their carbon footprint. TripIt says it “takes into account factors like distance, flight class, and environmental elements” when making these calculations. TripIt tracks individual flights and total annual carbon footprint.

TripIt users can find this information in the flight detail screen under “Carbon Footprint” once they link a trip to the app. The app offers suggestions for offsetting emissions alongside the carbon footprint info. Cumulative emissions can be found under “Travel Stats” in the “More” tab.

Readers, do you offset your carbon emissions from traveling? If not, would you do so if it were easier to know your carbon footprint? Comment below.

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