Dreaming of a Green Christmas?

The average American has an annual carbon footprint of roughly 23 tons (more than 50,000 pounds). Changes in personal habits (e.g. taking public transit, using energy-efficient light-bulbs like the LED Christmas lights above and appliances) can significantly lower this number by reducing direct (or internal) emissions, but it's not so easy to reduce our indirect (or external) carbon consumption.

Everything in our homes and workplaces--food, clothing and the products we use every day--requires energy to grow and manufacture, to transport and to store. And while we can purchase certain locally produced items to lower this impact, there are too many things that can't be bought this way. iPods and Wiis, olives and papayas, Levis and Nikes aren't produced in our neighborhoods, and every such product we purchase significantly affects our carbon footprints.

Carbonfund.org recognizes this reality and helps individuals and corporations offset their external carbon consumption. It brings together some 100,000 private donors and over 400 business partners to invest in renewable energy, energy efficiency and reforestation projects, all of which reduce carbon emissions or remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The principle is simple: Carbonfund.org takes your money and puts it into projects that reduce or eliminate carbon dioxide. As a result, you counter your emissions and arrive at a carbon footprint of zero, thus eliminating the negative impact of your activities on the environment.

You can choose the way that Carbonfund.org invests your money. You can select renewable energy projects, such as a biomass digester at California's Inland Empire Utility Agency, which converts cow manure from fourteen farms into methane gas that generates electricity to power a water desalination plant. You can also ask the organization to invest your funds in the Chicago Climate Exchange, where more than 200 companies, cities, states and universities participate in a "cap-and-trade" program, wherein they trade carbon credits in 100 ton-increments known as CFIs (Carbon Fund Initiatives), to arrive at set emission levels. Or you can select reforestation initiatives such as the Return to Forest Project in Rivas, Nicaragua, where Carbonfund.org is working with conservation organization Paso Pacifico to restore abandoned pastures to a native forest that will offset 150,000 tons of carbon dioxide, provide a habitat corridor for spider monkeys and ocelots and generate eco-tourism revenues for the community.

And how much does all this good cost? A mere $99 will get you (or a loved one) a personal carbon offset credit equivalent to 50,715 pounds of carbon dioxide, reducing your carbon footprint to zero for a year. For $396 dollars, you can offset the emissions of a family of four. And just time for the holidays, you can purchase 2-ton and 5-ton ZeroCarbon ClimateTags Gift Cards for $11 and $55 dollars respectively. These make perfect Secret Santa gifts exchanges and stocking stuffers, and are a great way to counter the rampant consumerism of the season.

Posted by Christos Tsirbas.

link
www.carbonfund.org

Comments

[Julianna Marriott]

Carbon Offsets, yeah. So a company is saying "I will produce this 100,000 tons of carbon anyway, but I will purchase offsets so we can all pretend I didn't". When it comes to the environment and what we all are spewing into it, offset=faulty math. The carbon is still being produced! Is anyone actually monitoring the carbon production of these buzzword companies? Is this another Free Willy fad? The only way to lower carbon emmissions is to actually lower them. I sold my vehicle, changed all my lighting to CF, purchased a year's support of Native Energy windfarms. I am still not convinced I am doing enough, so I am not buying new gifts this year for Commercialmass, I am gifting with used and recycled. I am trying to convince people around me that the can of soup is much less nutricious than the homemade. If a company is still mass-producing carbon, quit buying their BS and their product. We each must be resposible. Walk or take mass transit, don't buy the Hummer, people, and don't let the carbon-offsetting CEOs buy it either. Our planet, our $$$, our resposibility.