Behold the mighty power of the phrase “carbon footprint.”

Prior to Al Gore rolling out An Inconvenient Truth in 2006, it’s a fair bet that the majority of people had never heard the phrase or given it much thought. Since then it’s become a convenient buzzword, has garnered a lot of interest in the media and among the general public, and has in many cases become a potent marketing tool that can enhance a company’s image. But what does it actually mean.

The term is an offshoot from the broader “ecological footprint,” a measure of man’s impact on the environment. It was coined in 1995 by Mathis Wackernagel, a sustainability expert and the executive director of the Global Footprint Network. In the 2007 paper “A Definition of ‘Carbon Footprint,’‘’ authors Thomas Wiedmann and Jan Minx of Integrated Sustainability Analysis UK Research & Consulting (isa-research.com.uk) note that “despite its ubiquitous appearance there seems to be no clear definition of this term and there is still some confusion what it actually means and measures and what unit is to be used.” Painted with a broad brush, a carbon footprint is the volume of gaseous emissions—largely carbon dioxide—created in the course of a person’s daily business, whether it be automotive emissions or the gaseous by-product of a manufacturing process. Wiedmann and Minx suggest that the definition be stated thus: “...a measure of the exclusive total amount of carbon dioxide emissions that is directly and indirectly caused by an activity or is accumulated over the life stages of a product.”.

Environmental impact, however, is not simply a matter of gases. It’s a function of everything that is done on a daily operational basis, from melting metal to sending a memo. Fire up a Google search on the phrase “reducing carbon footprint” and the number of suggestions (mostly tailored to individuals) is staggering: they range from changing your light bulbs to taking a local vacation as opposed to flying to a distant destination. One thing, however, comes up quite often: using resources responsibly. As awareness grows, more companies are looking at how each daily task impacts the planet and how they can change what they do to make their own footprints that much smaller.

The Journey to Green

As a jewelry maker, there are many steps you can take to achieve a greener operation. But according to Alan Bell, managing director of Rio Grande in Albuquerque, New Mexico, you need to begin the process with the basic step of simplifying your day-to-day operations. “A great by-product of simplifying is that you use less of everything,” says Bell. “Less electricity, less water, you name it.” He suggests starting the process of reducing your carbon footprint by asking a series of questions: “What is going out of your building? How much dirty water? Dirty air? Cardboard? Scrap? What if your goal was to eliminate anything leaving your building except finished product? Is that impossible? Maybe, but it has a way of radically challenging your assumptions.” When you isolate different areas of your manufacturing and business operation, you can assess the impact of each on the environment, and find ways to minimize that impact for the better of the Earth—and, often, your business. The following are some actions to consider.