Calculate your personal nitrogen footprint
The N-Calculator is a tool that allows individuals to calculate their nitrogen footprint. The tool in its current form can also be scaled for use by communities, organizations, or countries.
| N Calculator |
When using the N-Calculator, you are asked questions about resource consumption in the following areas:
- Food consumption
- Housing
- Transportation
- Goods and services
The N-Calculator, which starts with the average per capita consumption of these four categories in a country, is then scaled to the individual based on the user’s answers to the questions. The N-Calculator then estimates the nitrogen lost per unit of per capita resource consumption.
The production and consumption of food typically makes up the largest proportion of a person’s nitrogen footprint. In the United States, food production and consumption make up 80% of the average per capita N footprint.
Currently, there are N-Calculator tools available for the United States, the Netherlands, and Germany. We are in the process of developing N-Calculators for other countries, including China, Tanzania, India, the UK, and Portugal.
More detail on the N-Calculator and its methodology can be found in the recently accepted N-Calculator paper, titled "A nitrogen footprint model to help consumers understand their role in nitrogen losses to the environment." This paper will be published in Environmental Development in January 2012. Please click here to view this paper.
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