Upper Green Side

Regarding Carbon Emissions and Offsets.

Here at Upper Green Side, we are very concerned about taking personal responsibility for our carbon emissions that contribute to Global Warming. Changing your light bulbs to compact fluorescents or driving less is a way to reduce your carbon output, but even the most conscientious environmentalist will be personally responsible for some carbon emissions. You can do things to offset those carbon emissions, but first it’s good to take stock of what is driving your emissions.

There are many good carbon calculators available on the web to help you figure out your carbon footprint. Some are more precise and require specific amounts of kilowatts, miles in automobiles or planes and/or heating oil/natural gas you use in a given year while others ask general information about your lifestyle to create an estimate of your footprint. Use these to figure out where you can make the biggest carbon savings in your own life. Try out a few of them and see if you get similar answers. Depending on the calculator, you may come out with somewhat different answers, but the general findings of what is driving your personal contribution should be similar.

Even after you have pared your carbon footprint down to the lowest level you are comfortable with, there are ways to help offset the remaining amount to zero or even beyond. The first and best next step you can do is talk about what you did with your friends, family, coworkers and neighbors about how you reduced your carbon footprint. You may even want to help spur them into action by making it even easier for them by buying them Compact Fluorescent bulbs to install in their homes. Word of mouth is a powerful marketing tool because the message is usually practical and from trustworthy sources. Focus on the positive aspects of what you have done and how it makes you feel. In addition to talking to people you see on a regular basis, consider sending out custom emails to several people you know well detailing what you personally have done and what web resources that you found helpful and would recommend to others looking to make better decisions to reduce their carbon emissions. Ask local businesses what they are doing to lower the amount of carbon they are responsible for as well. If enough people ask, they might see a marketing opportunity to attract customers like yourself.

There are many new organizations that are working on projects to reduce carbon emissions that allow individuals to buy offsets of their individual emissions, like TerraPass (for profit) and the Carbon Fund (non-profit). Grist magazine did a review of all the major carbon offset programs and the basics of how they structure their programs and how they spend the money donated. Consider all the information you read on their websites and decide what program you like the best. All of this is to help people consider carbon emissions in all the major decisions about where to live, how to to get around, what food to eat, what appliances to buy and use.

So in general, do what you can individually, discuss with others what they can do and give money to organizations and support businesses that are working to reduce their carbon emissions.