Patent ID: 8862721

Claim:
A method for obtaining an environmental footprint from a user's use of a website, the method comprising the steps of: viewing a specific website by using a user terminal connected by a network to a server embedded with a unique identifying tag; establishing contact between the user terminal and an environmental footprint server comprising an environmental footprint detection database, wherein the environmental footprint associated with the viewing of the specific website by a user is defined to include contributions to carbon dioxide emission while the specific website is viewed, the contributions to carbon dioxide emissions from: the user terminal, the server, and the network connection to the server; identifying the unique identifying tag associated with the server and the specific website; placing, by means of the environmental footprint server, a cookie on the user terminal used in the step of viewing the specific website; updating the cookie on the user terminal with time data determined each time the specific website is viewed; updating the environmental footprint detection database with time data associated with the specific website each time the specific website is viewed to determine an amount of time the user terminal displayed the specific website; obtaining and storing in the environmental footprint detection database: an average for emissions of the user terminal, a location of the user terminal, an average for emissions of the server, a location of the server, an average for emissions of the network connection, a data transfer amount for the network connection; calculating a comprehensive environmental footprint associated with the viewing of the specific website by using the amount of time the user terminal displayed the specific website, a time required to download parts and the whole of the website from the server to the user terminal, the average for emissions of the user terminal, the location of the user terminal, the average for emissions of the server, the location of the server, the average for emissions of the network connection, and the data transfer amount for the network connection; and presenting the result of the calculation to a user on the user terminal.