I'm always on the lookout for useful communication/educational tools, so a Tuesday piece in the New York Times, titled An Advanced Carbon Calculator for Personal Use, caught my eye.

Many environmental groups offer simple carbon calculators on the Web, which allow people to figure the carbon dioxide production from daily routines like driving a car or lighting a house.

“But this is serious software, serious quantitative methods and social networking technology brought to the green world,” said Ron Dembo, the chief executive of Zerofootprint, a nonprofit group that provides information and services to combat global warming.

As I followed the links, I learned that there are actually two different calculators in beta-stage development–one for Toronto residents, the other for kids (presumably kids who live in Toronto as well). Ultimately, Zerofootprint has plans to rollout carbon calculators for large cities around the world.

Zerofootprint Cities is an initiative designed to provoke the massive kind of action that we need to combat global warming and create the global community required for this scale of initiative. It is a forum for combining efforts and linking citizens to a global network of others who are collaborating on reducing their footprint.

At their current stage of development, the Zerofootprint calculators show great promise. The kids' calculator appears to be further along in development and may actually be ready for prime time–prime time Canada, that is.

Zerofootprint's website offers lots of tools, products and services to help large corporations, organizations and individuals significantly reduce their environmental footprint, though many of them are still in beta-stage development. From a marketplace, to an events calendar and blog, Zerofootprint serves up lots of food for thought.

I'll be keeping my eye on future developments. I'm particularly looking forward to the Jackson-specific carbon calculator.

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