Issue Date: March 1, 2009
GreenSmart |
NATALIE ERMANN RUSSELL |
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The inside scoop on your "carbon offset"
You can't escape the term "carbon footprint" these days. The bigger yours is, the more your activities contribute to global warming. Enter carbon offsets, a way to reduce that footprint.
"When consumers buy carbon offsets, their money helps dairy farmers and landfill owners pay for equipment that captures and generates electricity from methane, a potent greenhouse gas," says Erik Blachford, CEO of TerraPass, a business that provides carbon offsets. "It also helps wind-power developers compete with coal-fired plants, resulting in more clean energy flowing into the electrical grid."
Here are a few tips from Blachford:
Calculate your carbon footprint online. At terrapass.com, you can find out the impact of your travel choices, right down to which airline and what seat class you fly.
Research the offset provider. Make sure it's verified using an independent standard, such as the Voluntary Carbon Standard, one of three used by TerraPass.
Think "instant gratification." "Global warming is an urgent problem, so we only sell offsets that result in reductions in the same year we sell them," Blachford says. Tree-planting projects, for example, take decades to reduce carbon.
Want to know more about carbon footprints? Click here.
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