Unless you’ve been living in a tent in the north woods for the last several years, you’ve probably caught wind of the fact that the world’s heating up, with the primary cause being the increase in carbon and other greenhouse gases.
This leaves us all to wonder, “what can we do about it?” While our leaders debate that topic, there are things that individuals can do, and are doing, to reduce their impact. One company, TerraPass, founded by my past Wharton School professor, Karl Ulrich, shows you ways to reduce and balance your impact with Carbon Offsets.
Basically, a Carbon Offset represents the reduction of one metric ton (2,205 lbs) of carbon dioxide emissions, the principal cause of global warming. Although complex in practice, carbon offsets are fairly simple in theory. If you develop a project that reduces carbon dioxide emissions, every ton of emissions reduced results in the creation of one carbon offset. Project developers can then sell these offsets to finance their projects.
There are hundreds of different types of carbon reduction projects. For example, a wind farm generates clean energy, which reduces carbon emissions from coal-burning power plants. In order to finance its operations, a wind farm can sell these reductions in the form of carbon offsets. (This description copied from TerraPass website — see a list of all of their projects)
Today, TerraPass launched their Carbon Balanced Business Program, to provide the first online carbon calculator to help businesses take action on climate change — and, TeachStreet’s excited to be one of their proud partners — we’ve purchased offsets to reduce our 15 metric tons of CO2 emissions by sponsoring clean energy and carbon reduction projects through TerraPass — because of that, TerraPass grants us the right to display the badge (above) on our website, to alert customers, partners, and employees to the environmental commitment we’ve made.
It’s a small first step on our part, but we encourage you and your organizations to consider it as well — at a minimum, we recommend that you go learn more about Carbon Offsets.
p.s. Check out the TerraPass Blog as well!