CBEI estimates the total greenhouse gas emissions resulting from all consumption within a study area. For this project, two study areas will be analysed:

  1. the City and County of San Francisco, and
  2. the State of California.

For this study emissions will be broken down by

  1. emissions from households, government and business investments;
  2. emissions released within the study area, outside of the study area but within the United States, and in foreign countries;
  3. life-cycle phase (production, pre-purchase transportation, wholesale/retail, use, post-consumer disposal); and
  4. 400-500 types of consumer goods and services that aggregate to a few dozen subcategories and approximately 15 categories.