I'm interested Co2 reduction opportunities, has anyone done this?

Question

How do you really know that it's removing your CO2 footprint, and not just something someone tells you to make you feel better? I mean they are talking about up to 150 tons of greenhouse gas. How do they even measure that?

I've looked at Terrapass (the ones from the Oscars) http://www.terrapass.com/index.html

Answer 1

This is just a money grab. A way to make rich people feel good. They say that if I pay them $39.95 a year, that the 7,454 lbs of CO2 my car emits in a year won't count. It is like saying that if I pay $1,000,000 to the family of a person I shot dead, it will be OK to shoot him! If you believe this, then all the U.S. has to do is pay a few billion dollars a year and keep polluting all we want and it will be OK. That is basically what the Kyoto Protocol says. That is just CRAZY!

Answer 2

I do it as a job !!!

The idea is very simple and relies on sound accounting (CO2 and financial balances).
For every CO2 certificate you buy, the same quantity of emission will be reduced... now is the question reduced to what ? compared to what ?

Therefore you have to establish a baseline: what would have happened without the project (e.G. electricity from a coal power plant) ?
You calculate then the saving from the projects (I save that many tons of CO2 by using hydro and wind instead).
You have to substract all "leakages": e.G. the construction and maintenance of the wind mill and hydro power will also emitt CO2 which has to be taken into account.

And then the KEY for a good project: additionality !

You have to prove that the project would not have happened without the financing from the emission certificates. This means that without this extra money, nobody would invest in the project because it is not enough viable, too risky etc... since investors have so many projects they can possible choose

Projects then go through a long cycle of approvals before and verification during and after... all high quality processes.
Except for voluntary markets (outside the Kyoto frame) where (especially in the US) there have been some very dishonest people.

ALL THE PROJECTS UNDER KYOTO ARE TRANSPARENT AND AVAILABLE in order to spread good practices around the world. Meetings of the executive board are even broadcast for free and everybody

Answer 3

I don't know. A lot of all of this involves just feeling good. And the problem is compounded by the fact that whatever we do won't visibly affect the environment. We have to just trust that we were either a part of the problem or a part of the solution.

Creating a buzz so that pro-environmental candidates win elections and have the power to enact pro-environmental policies seems more effective than anything. Follow that up by making it profitable for corporations to be a pro-environmental corporations.

So, I guess even if "Terrapass" is snake oil, it might help by creating that buzz. Still…

Answer 4

I've not done a 'footprint', but I have installed wind, solar electric, solar thermal and I do drive an economy car.

Start by replacing standard light bulbs with compact flourscent lights if you haven't done so already.

Answer 5

Girl, I leave footprints, but its okay because Iwatch where I step, and besides, i wear cute tennis shoes with nice tread patterns so when people see my feetprints, they know I must be a sweetie, which I am. So when I hear people talk about co2footprints, I just say "Watch your step!"

Answer 6

Some of the carbon reduction/offset schemes are a scam. you are better off using a site which tells you how to alter your lifestyle to reduce your "carbon footprint" I like the WWF site for whole planet impact.

Answer 7

I have done this...all it requires is a little change in your everyday habit..I have a site here that can help you on those decisions...It's a great site with lots of information...I hope this helps... http://better.yahoo.com/planet/ ..Go here and take the pledge and you can also recieve an unlimited amount of flourescent light bulbs to help the environment for doing different things...I hope this helped...