Tom Rankin
Well-known member
When Anne Pashby moved to Baltimore last year, she was dismayed by the complexity of recycling in her new city.
"I can never get it right about which day is paper versus cardboard versus cans," said Ms. Pashby, 38, a human resources manager. "So I've given up on it."
But she wasn't ready to give up on the environment. Looking for an easier way to make her life greener, she tried a "carbon calculator" at the Web site of the Conservation Fund (conservationfund.org). She learned that the events of her everyday life, like driving the car, heating her home or taking plane trips, produced about 14 tons a year of carbon emissions, or "carbon footprint." The Conservation Fund, a nonprofit group in Arlington, Va., offered to neutralize that amount for $57, by planting 11 trees in the lower Mississippi Valley — enough to remove 14 tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. She happily complied.
"It felt pretty good," she said. "I could pat myself on the back and not lay out a whole lot of cash."
Call them green upgrades: easy ways for consumers to help the environment without changing their behavior. Such upgrades have been proliferating: Skiers, for example, can spend an extra $2 at some resorts to offset the pollution produced in a drive to the mountains; the money goes to environmental organizations. On Web sites like TerraPass.com or CoolDriver.org, drivers can total a car's pollution for a year and direct a corresponding sum to clean-energy projects.
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Green upgrades appeal to a sense of personal responsibility. "I like the idea that I pollute this much, so I pay this much," said Morgan Waters, 36, a physician from Sacramento. Last fall, he paid about $40 through TerraPass, a Web-based, for-profit company in Menlo Park, Calif., to offset emissions from his Volkswagen Jetta. TerraPass channels the money to projects promoting green power and industrial efficiency. He also pays an extra $6 a month to his local electric company for renewable energy.
The challenge for consumers is to understand exactly what their money goes for, and how much the upgrades actually help the environment.
Full article (may require registration) at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/25/b...a03f8d38c710&ei=5089&partner=rssyahoo&emc=rss
"I can never get it right about which day is paper versus cardboard versus cans," said Ms. Pashby, 38, a human resources manager. "So I've given up on it."
But she wasn't ready to give up on the environment. Looking for an easier way to make her life greener, she tried a "carbon calculator" at the Web site of the Conservation Fund (conservationfund.org). She learned that the events of her everyday life, like driving the car, heating her home or taking plane trips, produced about 14 tons a year of carbon emissions, or "carbon footprint." The Conservation Fund, a nonprofit group in Arlington, Va., offered to neutralize that amount for $57, by planting 11 trees in the lower Mississippi Valley — enough to remove 14 tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. She happily complied.
"It felt pretty good," she said. "I could pat myself on the back and not lay out a whole lot of cash."
Call them green upgrades: easy ways for consumers to help the environment without changing their behavior. Such upgrades have been proliferating: Skiers, for example, can spend an extra $2 at some resorts to offset the pollution produced in a drive to the mountains; the money goes to environmental organizations. On Web sites like TerraPass.com or CoolDriver.org, drivers can total a car's pollution for a year and direct a corresponding sum to clean-energy projects.
...
Green upgrades appeal to a sense of personal responsibility. "I like the idea that I pollute this much, so I pay this much," said Morgan Waters, 36, a physician from Sacramento. Last fall, he paid about $40 through TerraPass, a Web-based, for-profit company in Menlo Park, Calif., to offset emissions from his Volkswagen Jetta. TerraPass channels the money to projects promoting green power and industrial efficiency. He also pays an extra $6 a month to his local electric company for renewable energy.
The challenge for consumers is to understand exactly what their money goes for, and how much the upgrades actually help the environment.
Full article (may require registration) at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/25/b...a03f8d38c710&ei=5089&partner=rssyahoo&emc=rss
