Agrowing number of people these days are debating whether to buy a hybrid car,use public transportation, or ride a bike to work. Those decisions impact what is being called a person's"carbon footprint" - the amount of carbon dioxide or greenhouse gases a person's activities produce. ProducerZulima Palacio looks into the issue of the carbon footprint and offers suggestions on how toreduce it. Mil Arcega narrates this Searching for Solutions report.

Most energy use produces carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases

Almost every action in our daily lives - being at home with the lights on, watching TV ordriving a car - involves energy use.
And most energy use produces carbon dioxide and othergreenhouse gases.

Now, governments and environmental organizations aremeasuring the carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases our activities produce. Thisis called the carbon footprint.

"A carbon footprint is essentially the sum totalof an individual's energy use," explains Katie Mandes of the PEW Center on Global Climate Change.

Katie Mandes

A carbon calculator can help individuals measuretheir carbon footprint. Just type "Carbon Footprint" into yourfavorite search engine, and you will find thousands of groups that can measureyour footprint.

A "Personal EmissionsCalculator" can be found on the U.S.Environmental Protection Agency's website. When you answer questions about yourhouse, transportation routines and lifestyle, the calculator itemizes and addsup your energy use.

"A well-designed calculator will give anindividual specific tools and tips that they can use to immediately begin toreduce their carbon footprint," Mandes added.

Scott Sklar has been working to reduce his carbonfootprint for nearly 40 years. He has transformed his 1920s house outsideWashington, DC into an environmentally friendly home, using many kinds of solarpanels.

Electricity is drawn from the electric grid on the roof

"On my 3.1 kilowatt house, I have two kilowattsof polycrystalline across the top roof and a half a kilowatt of photovoltex onthe smaller roof and my solar water heater equals about over a half akilowatt," Sklar said. "So I have 3 kilowatts on a 3.1 kw house, which means ona day like today, it's a spring day, I am not drawing any electricity from theelectric grid."

Sklar installed additional insulation throughout hishome, a vent in the attic to lower the inside temperature during the summer, and a wind turbine to generate electricity,in addition to the solar water heater.

"When I put that on in the mid 1980s, that addedabout eight dollars a month to my mortgage. I was saving $25 a month in energycost, and now I am saving $40 a month on my energy cost, and it's all been paidoff," Skiar added.

Around the house, Sklar has planted fruits andberries, and he collects runoff water in barrels to water his garden. In thebasement, he keeps batteries that storethe electricity from the solar panels. "These are 24-deep cycle batteries. They don'tneed any maintenance, and they store the electricity from the panels across theroof," he explained.

Sklar has energy-efficient appliances and ceilingfans that circulate air. 

He gives tours of his property to clients of hiscompany, The Stella Group. It helpsgovernment and private companies transform their buildings so they are energyefficient.

Over the past three years, Sklar has been testinghydrogen fuel cells. "This electricity is made without heat, without noiseand the only emission is pure water, and the water actually waters this littletree here in the corner," Sklar said.

He says about 80 percent of today's clean energy iscost effective.  

"The global warming issue is finally, I think,taking root, that people have to do something about it themselves first beforethey worry about governments or anybody else getting involved," he said.

Sklar drives a hybrid car. He says in the near future home energy will be tied to onsite energy systems, whether solar,wind, fuel cell or other clean technologies, and this will help reduce our carbon footprint.