DENVER -- If you want to reduce your energy consumption on this earth, in turn reducing greenhouse gases, a good place to start is to establish where you are at right now.

There are a lot of carbon footprint calculator Web sites floating out there. How reliable are these calculators? Well, that's hard to determine, but I did find one on the EPA's website called "Personal Emissions Calculator". It's one of the more basic calculators. It took about 10 minutes to fill out, and in my opinion, it's a good place to start. Personal Emissions Calculator

I'm going to share my personal findings with everyone just to prove that even I need to be greener. I thought I would do pretty well on this test.

I recycle all paper, glass, tin, aluminum, cardboard and I compost. I drive a car with good gas mileage and live close to work so my driving to and from is minimal. I did do rather well in those categories, but a little below average when it comes to heating my house and water during those Colorado winter months. My natural gas consumption adds up to 4,186 pounds of carbon dioxide (CO2) in a year. The average for one person is around 5,500 pounds a year.

On the other hand, my electric consumption is above normal. According to my electric bills I average $60 in electricity a month which calculates to 9,864 pounds of CO2 emissions a year. The average for one person is around 8,145 pounds a year.

My transportation, disposal of waste, and energy consumption at my home amass to a grand total of 18,893 pounds of CO2 emissions a year. That's almost 10 percent below average. I'm happy with that, but wait can I do better?

The next part of the test shows how you can reduce your CO2 in the next year by purchasing a car with better gas millage or simply driving less. Also, replacing more efficient light bulbs, buying an efficient refrigerator, replacing energy efficient windows and turning that air conditioner temperature up are some of the other CO2 reducers.

I've already done some of the suggestions and plan to reduce my driving even more and ride my bike a couple of more days a month. I just bought a new Energy Star refrigerator, replaced five lighting sources with compact fluorescent light bulbs and this weekend I'm insulating all my hot water pipes.

If I'm a good green girl and stick with my plan I could reduce my CO2 emissions by 2,097 pounds a year. This actually motivated me to do some math: if everyone in the U.S. reduced their CO2 emissions in the next year by 2,000 pounds that could add up to a 6 trillion reduction. Even half of that is pretty substantial. I encourage you to take the test and then see where you're at a year from now. Oh, and tell your friends too!

One last note, I realize this test doesn't account for the energy we use while at work, going to the movies, hitting the slopes, or even vacation miles in a year, but we have little control of those situations and furthermore, on average we spend more time at home than any where else. If you'd like to take an extra step you can always buy carbon offset points. Here's a good place to start: CarbonFund.org

Want to play some more? Here's another carbon footprint calculator I came across that shows you how many Earths it would takes to sustain your unsustainable living habits: ConsumerConsquences