Calculate your impact.

Published baselines, our own estimated factors — every assumption is shown below. The grade reflects only what we control — catering — never guest travel or venue energy. Share the result with your guests using the link below.

Event Name (optional)

Personalizes the share link for your guests.

Guest Count

100

Drag to set your total expected attendance.

Menu / Experience

Main Protein

Salmon is flown in from Scotland, so it carries the heaviest footprint on our menu. Beef and bison come next; pork and turkey run lighter; our local, regenerative lamb runs lightest of all the meats. Our regenerative sourcing keeps every one of them well below industrial. The vegetable-forward menu pairs only with the vegetable-forward protein, and every other menu pairs with a meat or salmon. Water is estimated from the menu alone, so the protein changes carbon, not gallons.

Destination

Sets how far your menu travels from our Taos kitchen by road — closer means fewer food miles. Other Northern New Mexico venues: choose the nearest listed.

Tabletop

Every Charro and Asado is served family style on our reusable table top set. Rental china scores slightly lower on the tabletop part of the Impact Score (for delivery and commercial washing); it does not change the tons, pounds or gallons.

Leftovers

Kitchen scraps and plate waste go back to the soil.

Flowers

Centerpieces and floral décor composted after the last dance.

Bottles & Cans

Glass bottles and cans from the bar, recycled.

Cardboard

Delivery boxes and cases, broken down and recycled.

Packaging

Food and supply packaging sorted for recycling.

Décor

Greenery, natural décor and paper goods composted.

Wine & Spirits

New Mexico wineries and distilleries mean far fewer transport miles.

Your Impact Report

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Lower catering carbon than the average American wedding

Impact Score — — / 100

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Tons of CO₂ Saved

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Pounds Diverted from Landfill

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Gallons of Water Saved

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Equivalent Trees, One Year (estimate)

Measured against the average American wedding, scaled to your guest count — 3.85 pounds of landfill waste and 0.15 tons of catering CO₂ per guest¹.

Request menu & pricing

How the Grade Is Calculated

Transparent math. Every assumption shown.

The calculator measures only what we directly control — catering. Guest travel and venue energy sit outside it, because they sit outside our hands. Your footprint is weighed against the average American wedding at the same guest count.

Baseline: the average American wedding

A 130-guest wedding: 400–600 pounds of landfill waste and 63 tons of CO₂ in all¹ — 3.85 pounds and 0.5 tons per guest — with a tenth of the food typically thrown away². We count only the catering share of that carbon, which we estimate at 30%: 0.15 tons of CO₂ per guest. Water is based on conventional beef at 1,800 gallons per pound³ and 12 ounces of beef per guest: 1,350 gallons per guest.

The menu

Each menu carries our estimated share of the baseline catering carbon: 18–25% for our set experiences and 8% for a vegetable-forward menu — a 75–92% cut before the main protein is counted. The main protein then scales that share, from 0.30× for vegetable-forward to 1.20× for salmon. Across every menu, protein and destination, the estimated carbon cut runs from 66% to 98%. Water is estimated from the menu alone, at 12–50% of the baseline; the protein does not change it. These factors are our own estimates, not published figures.

The destination

The distance from our Taos kitchen to your venue. Closer means fewer food miles. Our kitchen is in the Taos Valley; Greater Santa Fe sits 70 miles out. Every 100 miles adds 10% to the menu’s carbon.

Waste diversion

A typical wedding’s waste is split into streams: half serviceware, 30% food, and 4% each for flowers, bottles and cans, cardboard, packaging and décor. Each stream you compost or recycle counts 99% of its share as diverted; rental china counts as diverted because it is reused. At its best, a Net Zero Ranch wedding has sent as little as five pounds to landfill⁴.

The Net Zero Ranch Impact Score

A single number blending five dimensions: carbon reduction at 40%, waste diversion at 25%, water savings at 15%, local sourcing at 10% (an estimated 90% local, less 15 percentage points of local sourcing, or 1.5 score points, for out-of-state wine and spirits), and the tabletop at 10% (reusable rental china 92%). Most of our events land between 75 and 95 — the higher the score, the lighter the event.

Carbon returned to the soil

Research estimates that regenerative land can draw carbon down and hold it underground — 1–3 tons per acre each year⁵. We do not measure this on our partners’ land, so the score never counts it.

Where the savings grow

Two levers lift the number: a vegetable-forward or regenerative-lamb menu over heavy beef, and a venue nearer our Taos kitchen. Guest count scales the totals — tons, pounds, gallons — while the percentage and grade reflect the choices you make. Equivalent trees is our estimate, at 60 pounds of CO₂ per mature tree per year; it is not a cited figure.

Sources

Kate Harrison, The Green Bride Guide (2008); cited in Stanford Magazine, “Greening the Wedding”.
Grist, “Weddings are back. We can make them less wasteful.” (2022).
Water Footprint Calculator (GRACE Communications), water footprint of beef.
Net Zero Ranch internal measurement based on operational practice. A typical wedding sends 400–600 pounds to landfill (50% disposable serviceware, 30% food waste, and 20% packaging and décor). When composting is added, our reusable table top set and composting through Reunity Resources divert nearly all of it; waste weighed at Net Zero Ranch events has been as little as five pounds for an entire wedding.
Soil carbon sequestration estimates: Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems (2023), quantifying soil carbon under regenerative practices; and the Rodale Institute soil-carbon white paper.

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impact grade.

Calculate your impact.

Transparent math. Every assumption shown.

Make your day lighter.