碳足迹一词来源于英语单词“Carbon Footprint”。维斯百科[1]关于这个词的解释是：A carbon footprint is the total amount of CO2 and other greenhouse gases emitted over the full life cycle of a product or service。
根据Thomas　Wiedmann和 Jan Minx的研究，碳足迹被定义为： The carbon footprint is 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 or service．