You’re offline. Saved pages still work

‹ Back to activities

Environment / Class 6–10 / 12 min / Medium

Carbon Footprint Calculator

Estimate yearly CO₂ emissions from travel, electricity, diet and shopping using simple emission factors, and compare choices with Indian and world averages.

Before you try

What if you switched from a car to a bus for school? How many trees’ worth of CO₂ would that save?

Try it out

Interactive activity

Loading simulator…

Loading controls…

What happened?

Move a control to see what changes and why.

The totals use rough average figures for one person. A real footprint depends on your country, how its electricity is made, and many choices not listed here.

Try these ideas

  • Start with a car, then switch to bus, cycle and walking for the same distance.
  • Change the diet from meat-heavy to vegetarian.
  • Find the smallest footprint you can with realistic choices.

Why it works

A carbon footprint is the total greenhouse gas released by the things we do, measured in kilograms or tonnes of CO₂ per year. Travel, electricity, food and the things we buy are the biggest parts for most families.

Slide each dial and watch the footprint bar and the “trees needed to absorb it” counter change. The factors are simplified classroom estimates (for example, a petrol car ≈ 0.17 kg CO₂ per km; a bus ≈ 0.07 kg per passenger-km; grid electricity ≈ 0.7 kg per kWh). The world average is about 4.7 tonnes per person per year; India’s is about 2.

Check your understanding

Question 1 of 3

Which gas is a carbon footprint mostly measured in?

Travelling 100 km by car (0.17 kg/km) instead of bus (0.07 kg/km) adds about…

Which change usually cuts a family’s footprint the most?

Explain it in your own words

What changed? Why did it happen? Where might you notice this in everyday life?

What will you discover next?

Try Renewable Energy City Planner next.

Continue learning

For parents & teachers

  • Estimate your family’s footprint together, then pick one change to try for a month.
  • Ask: why is “per person” important when comparing countries?
  • Look at an electricity bill and find the kWh used last month.

Open the parent & teacher guide ›

Explore all activities ›

Install GoKuriousPlay offline from your home screen.