Your vehicle’s carbon footprint is more than just the tailpipe emissions and includes all the activities that are needed to get the fuel from its source to the car. For example, crude oil drilling, pumping, refining, and shipping contribute to the carbon footprint of gasoline. When researchers examine vehicles and fuels in this way, it is commonly called a well-to-wheels analysis.

You may use the Carbon Calculator to estimate your travel carbon footprint and find ways to potentially reduce it. The Carbon Calculator uses results from the Greenhouse gases, Regulated Emissions, and Energy use in Transportation (GREET) model developed at Argonne with fuel economy data from the Environmental Protection Agency and statistics from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Transportation Energy Data Book.