If You Can't Do "A," Try "B" . . .

I’m still thinking about a post I read last month on The Tao of Change. The blog author (who’s trying to cut back on driving) was going to bike to visit a friend, the friend thought the trip wasn’t safe by bike and urged her to drive instead — and quietly gave up his own car trip to the coffeeshop the next day as an “offset.” What a cool definition of friendship: taking on a friend’s interests and concerns as one’s own. This also got me thinking that there are workarounds for many situations when one can’t do the obvious eco-friendly thing. Here are some ideas from me — I’d love to hear yours, too!

If you can’t reduce car trips . . .
Unfortunately the U.S. has been built up for individual car travel, not public transit. People have kids, jobs, need groceries, etc. If you can’t reduce as many car trips as you’d like, consider an inexpensive carbon offset to help neutralize your annual driving. TerraPass and Carbonfund.org have calculators and info, including offset plans. (I’ve been using Carbonfund when I fly — they’ll also calculate driving offsets — and TerraPass for an annual household offset.)

If you’re not ready to stop using petroleum-based laundry and dish detergent . . .
I’ve been making a gradual switch, basically keeping two versions on hand (petro-based and plant based) and trying out the new stuff periodically. I finally put away our bright blue dishsoap when I realized I was using the nice almond-scent ECOS Dishmate for almost all the dishes. And we’re currently transitioning into new laundry soap. I still have Tide but I’m trying out more earth friendly options on different types of laundry loads (towels one week, socks and undies the next), just to see if I like it.

If it’s too hot to turn off the air conditioner . . .
I have friends and extended family in Florida; I feel your pain (and I use the a/c a lot, too). At my house we’re compensating with household offsets (see above) and by signing up for our utility’s “green power” plan. The Dept. of Energy has a handy page with links, “Can I buy green energy in my state?”

If eco-friendly is just too expensive . . .
I’ve noticed two new-ish ideas. Clorox worked with the Sierra Club to develop its Clorox Green Works line of products, all of which have earned a Sierra Club seal of approval. They’re plant- and mineral-based, and all ingredients listed on the containers. Those I’ve seen in the store are comparably priced to familiar brand-name cleaning products. (I’ve tried out the toilet cleaner, which works as well as the really toxic stuff I was using before.) For cheaper laundry alternatives: Purex Naturals, while still containing about 1% petroleum based preservatives, is roughly 99% plant-based and is often priced lower than commercial brands (although I wish Purex was more forthcoming about ingredients. I had to hunt through their media pages to get this info). The one caveat here: do some pre-research, since I’ve also seen a couple well-known brand names just throwing “natural” on their labels to indicate fruit or flower scents.

Those are my ideas. If you have good workaround ideas, I’d love to see comments.

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Flying and Offsetting

As I mentioned on Thursday I’m traveling next week, so I figured, what the heck, I think I should purchase a carbon offset as a mea culpa for the flight’s environmental impact. I did some investigating and decided to use Carbonfund.org again for this trip. Three reasons: they’re a nonprofit; they’re super affordable (only $6 for my roundtrip, even with four separate planes); and they spend time on their site explaining “additionality,” which is their effort to ensure the money they receive creates an offset that would not have happened otherwise (as opposed to funding a project that was going to go forward regardless).

Today’s mitzvah: Are you traveling by car or plane this summer? Check out carbon offsets. They’re not very expensive, and may even help. Click my previous post here for more information. The Natural Resources Defense Council has a helpful overview, “Buying Carbon Offsets: What You Need to Know.” Vendors like Terra Pass and Carbonfund.org have easy calculators right on their sites.

Image © 2007 by Terra Pass.

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Carbon Fast for Lent: Dress Your Appliances

Tuesday in Holy Week
“Put an insulation jacket on your hot water tank. If everyone does, we’ll cut enough carbon dioxide to fill 148,000 hot air balloons.”

I confess: I am not a homeowner and probably would not recognize a hot water tank if it walked up and shook my hand. But I’m confident that folks with water tanks know what they are and are willing to dress them in a spiffy jacket.

I’m off to the airport bright and early. I’m taking public transit to Nearby Big City, then two environmentally unfriendly flights. I decided to use Carbonfund.org to purchase an offset. It was less than 5 bucks, and I picked energy efficiency as the area I wanted to fund. (My other choices were reforestation and renewable energy. I decided reduction is the area to which I’m not contributing elsewhere.)

Today’s mitzvah: Put some clothes on that tank!

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Carbon Fast for Lent: Airplanes and Offsets

The Fifth Saturday in Lent
Flying, or taking a long driving trip? Consider a carbon offset to balance the carbon impact

Despite all my carbon savings from not owning a car, I do fly a lot. I’ll even be flying on Easter Day, which is an unhappily ironic way to observe the end of the Carbon Fast for Lent.

At the very least I want to purchase a carbon offset to counteract the negative effects of my flights (even though the jury is out on whether this truly helps or just makes one feel better). I did some quick research and narrowed it down to two vendors. TerraPass is larger and better known, a for-profit that partners with Expedia and also powers Care 2’s Race to Stop Global Warming click-to-give page. Carbonfund.org positions itself as a nonprofit alternative to TerraPass and allows consumers to choose from three types of offsets: reforestation, renewable energy development, or energy reduction projects. (TerraPass’s projects include clean energy, farm power a.k.a. repurposing methane from animal waste, and landfill gas capture, in a predetermined ratio).

For my upcoming trip, Carbonfund.org calculated my 1,630-mile round-trip flight trip as producing .29 tons (580 lbs.) of CO2 with an offset cost of $1.61. But if I check a box marked “include radiative forcing” — the contrails one sees leaving traces from planes and other high-altitude effects — my impact increases to .79 tons (1,580 lbs.) of CO2 and an offset cost of $4.36. Carbonfund.org gave me the option of buying an offset in that amount, or choosing a pre-set “Plane Climate Tag,” beginning at 6,000 miles/ 2500 lbs. C02 for $6.25. At check-out they offered a choice of allocations: reforestation, renewable energy, or energy efficiency.

TerraPass’s calculator returned 1,618 miles and 729 lbs. of CO2 for the same trip. They recommended a 2,000-lb. offset intended to balance 6,000 miles for $9.90, which is their lowest-priced option.

I have a few more days to decide, but I’m leaning toward Carbonfund.org. I like being able to choose which type of offset to fund, they seem to be taking more environmental factors into consideration, they charge less, and it’s a nonprofit. Any thoughts? Chime in!

Today’s mitzvah: Consider a carbon offset for the next flight or long car trip. (TerraPass and Carbonfund.org even offer wedding offsets!)

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Carbon Fast for Lent: Easy Offset

The Fifth Friday in Lent
While experts debate the value of carbon offsets: visit Care2 to offset 1 lb. of carbon for free each day. At least it plants a tree funds a wind farm!

I’ve blogged before about the mildly controversial practice of carbon offsets — the act of planting a tree or otherwise undertaking a carbon-reducing activity to reduce one’s carbon footprint. (Controversial because folks don’t agree on offsets’ effectiveness.) They’re especially popular to compensate for the carbon produced by air travel, which I’ll be writing about tomorrow. Since we’re in the DIY portion of the carbon fast and I have to run to school to teach our last class before spring break: here’s a quick and easy (and free!) small carbon offset for busy people like us. Visit Care2’s Race to Stop Global Warming, click the green button, and site sponsors make a contribution to TerraPass to reduce one lb. of carbon. This is advertiser-driven so there’s no cost to you. The amount of carbon offset is small, but it will cover your carbon footprint from this morning’s shower or an hour of computer use. It’s quick, easy, and can’t hurt!

Today’s mitzvah: Visit Care2 and click to offset 1 lb. of carbon, at no cost to you.

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Carbon Fast for Lent: Radiator Magic

The Fifth Monday in Lent
“Fit aluminium foil behind your radiator – allowing you to turn the radiator down and save £10 a year per radiator.”

I no longer live in an apartment with a radiator, a fact for which I’m actually grateful. My NYC radiator also didn’t really have settings (just “on” and “not on” as I remember). But this sounds like a nifty tip. The Green Guy has DIY instructions and more info.

Since this is such a super short post: I’m also curious if anyone is using carbon offsets when they travel by plane. I’ll be on a research trip the last week in Lent, which involves four planes in five days. (How’s that for undoing a lot of the Lenten good; aargh.) The last time I flew I did something offsetty with Travelocity — I think they partner with TerraPass The Conservation Fund — basically just responding to a pop-up box when I bought the tickets. This time I’m flying on FF miles so there wasn’t a check-out option to add an offset. If anyone does buy carbon offsets and has an opinion or preference for a vendor, I’d love to hear.

Today’s mitzvah: Fun with foil (c’mon, you get to say al-you-MIN-ee-um) — or tell me about carbon offsets.

Update: I did it! Our power is 100% green

Related to the earlier post I was investigating the MG&E web site. I couldn’t figure out how this “Green Power” scheme worked. Would I just be making a contribution to offset the carbon produced by our apartment’s electric use? Or would I actually be switching us to alternative power?

A very patient phone rep explained it to me. It’s better than just buying a carbon offset: for the amount I contribute the power company does indeed increase the renewable energy in their electricity mix. (The New Yorker in me is skeptical of this, but I’m rolling with it.) Does this change the source of electricity coming into the house? Not directly: it’s not like we’re hooked up to a separate green utility pole with cleaner electricity just for us. (Hey, I can dream.) But it does mean I’m paying for clean energy in my portion of the overall pool. Instead of fossil fuels, my portion comes from the wind and solar sources included in the above graphic.

I had the option of purchasing a 300 kWh block each month, paying per/kWh for 50% of our power usage, or paying per kWh for 100% of our power. I may regret this in the summer when the A/C sends our bills way up, but I opted for 100%.

Color me green!

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Wind and Solar on the Electric Bill

For the past few years our local power company has offered customers the option of paying extra for wind power to balance the coal, oil, and natural gas nonrenewable fossil fuels that provide most of our electricity. But it was a pricey proposition.

Yesterday’s mail brought news of several new wind farms and a new solar energy producer in our community, which have greatly reduced the cost of this renewable energy program for consumers. Just $6/month is supposed to offset the carbon dioxide emissions in an average household’s electricity use. Since these are offsets — basically just contributions toward the utility’s acquistion of renewable energy — and not direct purchases of solar and wind power for one’s own home, I want to investigate this further before signing up. But it’s certainly encouraging to see solar and wind power playing a larger role in this very traditional utility’s offerings.

Today’s mitzvah: Visit your electric utility’s web site and investigate their renewable energy options.

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Carbon Offset Purchases: “Does it help or just feel good?”

The business trip begins: 6:30 a.m. at the airport. Flying this week has me thinking about carbon offsets. It’s a controversial idea: make a donation (to plant a tree or take a related action) that allegedly helps “neutralize” the environmental damage from the flight. The video below touches on both sides of the issue. The narrator is skeptical — yet he donated $7 to to plant a Douglas Fir to help offset the carbon produced on his flight. (For a less skeptical perspective, visit Care2’s Race to Save the Planet, which includes a clickable link to reduce 1 lb. of carbon.)



New programs at Travelocity and Expedia offer carbon offsets as add-ons when booking a flight. (If you book through iGive or GoodShop, you’ll also be making a donation to charity, whatever the effects of your offset.)

Today’s mitzvah: Check out TerraPass or the Conservation Fund’s Go Zero Calculator to take a quiz and measure your own carbon footprint, as well as steps to reduce it.

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Simple Sundays: Click to Offset 1 Lb. of Carbon

The topic of carbon offsets is controversial — something I’ll be investigating over the next few weeks since I have a business trip coming up that involves four separate airplane flights. While the jury is still out, even skeptics have time to click a link. Visit Care2’s “Race to Stop Global Warming,” click on the leaf box, and their sponsors will make a donation equivalent to offsetting one pound of carbon — the carbon footprint from your (or my) shower today.

Today’s mitzvah: Click here to reduce your carbon footprint. (Heck, at least it plants a tree.)

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