The next time you attempt to calculate your carbon footprint, don't forget to think beyond vehicle miles traveled or cross country air travel. For a truer reading of your carbon appetite, include the footprint of the services and products used daily, like the mobile phone.

Manufacturing and shipping cell phones require energy and raw materials, adding to emissions that cause climate change and air pollution, as well as reducing habitats as new areas are mined for metals, and materials used to make the phone’s plastics, liquid crystal, and battery. Then, the cell phone is transported, adding emissions once again. Finally, the user plugs cell phone into a wall charger and incurs more emissions over the two year life span of the phone. Carbon, carbon, and more carbon emissions.

To combat the environmental degradation of cell phones, Best Buy and Renewable Choice Energy have developed the “Green Your Phone” program. Users can opt in to purchasing $10 of carbon offsets that fund 500 kilowatt hours of renewable wind energy.

The purchase offsets the energy required to charge two cell phones during a two year period. Additionally, some of the general program funds go to support wind power in schools, as well as other wind projects across the country. It’s a (self) gift that keeps on giving.