# carbon footprint

> English word · Noun

## Definitions
1. A measure of the amount of carbon dioxide produced by a person, organization or state in a given time.

## Etymology
Coined in a 1999 BBC Vegetarian Good Food article and after the 1990s term ecological footprint and popularized by a 2005 advertising campaign for fossil-fuel company BP in order to shift blame for climate change onto individual consumers. Modelled after the ecological footprint concept developed in the 1990s.

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/carbon-footprint