carbon neutral

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adjective

pertaining to or having achieved a state in which the net amount of carbon dioxide or other carbon compounds emitted into the atmosphere is reduced to zero because it is balanced by actions to reduce or offset these emissions: Since the administration installed solar panels, the campus has become carbon neutral;a carbon-neutral brewery.

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See also carbon credit, carbon offsetting.

Origin of carbon neutral

First recorded in 1990–95

OTHER WORDS FROM carbon neutral

carbon neutrality, noun

How to use carbon neutral in a sentence

It reacts very readily with oxygen by burning smokelessly, with carbon dioxide and water as its byproducts.
Methane on Mars: Life or Just Gas?|Matthew R. Francis|December 17, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Methane (chemical formula CH4) is one of the simplest hydrocarbons, which literally means “containing hydrogen and carbon.”
Methane on Mars: Life or Just Gas?|Matthew R. Francis|December 17, 2014|DAILY BEAST
For decades, toy production and marketing was increasingly gender neutral.
Sexism Begins in the Toy Aisle|Nancy Kaffer|November 29, 2014|DAILY BEAST
The winter can be so drab—all greys, blacks, and neutral tones.
The Daily Beast’s 2014 Holiday Gift Guide: For the Carrie Bradshaw in Your Life|Allison McNearney|November 29, 2014|DAILY BEAST

But Herx showed that this “gender-neutral” rule had never been applied against men.
Catholic Church: Religious Freedom Trumps Civil Rights|Jay Michaelson|November 23, 2014|DAILY BEAST
A desultory conversation on politics, in which neither took the slightest interest, was a safe neutral ground.
The Pit Town Coronet, Volume I (of 3)|Charles James Wills
What are a few paltry, lumps of crystallised carbon compared to a galaxy of a million million suns?
God and my Neighbour|Robert Blatchford
Foreign families of neutral nationality sought more tranquil asylum far beyond the suburbs or on ships lying in the harbour.
The Philippine Islands|John Foreman
Neutral passenger-steamers were allowed to take away refugees other than Spanish subjects.
The Philippine Islands|John Foreman
The carbon dioxid evolved distends the stomach, and its outline can easily be determined by percussion.
A Manual of Clinical Diagnosis|James Campbell Todd