What is a Carbon Footprint?

Every activity we engage in produces some amount of CO2 (carbon).  Driving, heating our homes, eating food, playing, working, walking, etc.  all produce carbon in some way or another.  That carbon is released into the atmosphere.  This CO2 or carbon is causeing a "thickening" of the atmosphere and acting like a greenhouse glass window.  Thus the name greenhouse gas. 

This carbon allows the energy from the sun to enter our atmosphere and then traps the heat in our atmosphere.
The amount of carbon we produce annually is known as our carbon footprint and is nothing more than a way to calculate the effect we personnally have  on global warming. 

Carbon footprint is expressed in metric tons of CO2 released to the atmosphere, as a direct result of our actions.

Why should I care?
By calculating our carbon footprint we are able to determine the amont of impact we personally have on the environment and be ablet o compare this to the average carbon footprint
of other.  Additionally it gives us a mechanism that allows us to measure the effect of attempts to reduce our carbon footprint.
What is a Carbon Footprint?
and
Why should I calculate mine?
Reducing our carbon footprint
Reducing our carbon footprint is actually quite easy.  Just remember the three "R's", these are reducing, reusing and recycling.
Whenever we reduce, reuse or recycle we are lessoning the load on the planet and using less natural resources.  This results in a reduced production of carbon and lowering our carbon footprint.

Look in the tab "Carbon Calculator" and you will find a link to an EPA website with a program that asks you questions about how you live your life.  This calculator uses the information to calculate the amount of your personal carbon footprint.  Knowing your carbon footprint is the first step in being a responsible citizen towards the new way of living in a carbon constrained society.  Additionally you will be helping to ensure the earth is protected for our children and grandchildren to inherit.

Once you know your carbon footprint you now have a couple of decisions to make.  One is what if anything am I going to do to reduce my carbon footprint?  If you decide to reduce, you can do a couple of things either alone or together, Reduce or have someone reduce for you.

Reduce
This is quite easy.  It just takes a little thought and sometimes some planning.  To get started, begin to look at your actions and how you can reduce, reuse and recycle.  One of the immediate benefits from this is you are likely to save some money.
Here are some questions that will help get you started:

1.Are you recycling everything you can now?  Metal, plastic, glass, paper etc.
2.Do you combine local trips to make one trip instead of several?  Doing this you will save gas and wear and tear on your vehicle.
3.Eat foods that are grown near home as much as possible.  This cuts down on the CO2 released by shipping food from far away.
4.Next time you purchase a major appliance look for the energy star rating and get a more efficient model.
5.Nest time you purchase a car look for a more fuel efficient modle.
6.Carpool when possible
7.Have your furnace and AC units serviced and cleaned annually.
8.Look to buy products that are certified "green"
9.Look to buy products with as little packaging as possible.
10Turn off the lights if not in the room
11.Turn down the thermostat by a couple of degrees during the heating season and up a couple of degrees during the cooling season
12.Purchase Carbon Credits
There are many more.  Contact GreenSphere Global for more information or look up energy savings and similar topics on the Internet.

Have someone reduce for you.
This may sound a bit strange and for some this constitutes nothing more than allowing "polluters to continue to pollute".  Lets take a quick look at how this works and if it is a way for polluters to continue to pollute?

First lets understand how this works.
If you produce CO2 and have little opportunity to reduce your footprint or even little desire you can purchase Carbon Credits (CC's) from someone that already has caused a voluntary reduction of carbon that would have normally went into the atmosphere.  This entire subject gets a bit complicated but to make it easy lets look at this analogy

You are a home owner, commute to work, have a family, etc.  You calculate your family carbon footprint is say 250 Tons Per Year (TPY).  Lets assume you already have reduced all you can and drive the most energy efficient vehicle your family will fit in.  Reducing your footprint may not be easily feasible.

Now lest assume that I own a business that produces renewable electrical energy.  Renewable electricity costs considerably more to produce than fossil fueled electricity.  As a result the ability to build, own and operate plants is not financially feasible by selling just the energy and capacity generated by the plant.  In this case I would not be able to build a plant even though the energy to fuel the plant like wind, solar and landfill gas are available, these will just have to go to waste until the energy rates go up. 

In time they will, as we deplete the fossil fuel reserves it costs more to find them and process them to fuel we can use.  This may take many years and possibly decades.  Unless something changes the renewable energy plant would not get built and the renewable fuel would go to waste. 

To overcome this a financial instrument has been created called a Carbon Credit (CC).  This CC was created to make such plants financially feasible.  By voluntarily building the power plant I can obtain CC's.  By relying on sales of CC's to make the plant financially work I can satisfy the bankers and investors necessary to get the funds to build the plant.   By building this plant now I am reducing the amount of carbon being placed in the atmosphere because of either the fuel used was lower or no carbon like wind or the fuel was a waste fuel or was a fuel that was going to be burned under law like landfill gas.  In the case of landfill gas fuel the energy produced is considered renewable because for every kW of electrical energy produced by the new plant causes a kW of energy not to be produced by a fossil fuel plant and thus there is a reduction in the carbon.   This is what creates the CC.

Now back to you.  If you either elect to not reduce or have reduced all you can and want to have a further reduction in your carbon footprint you can purchase these CC's from my power plant.  By doing so you fund my operations and allow the power plant to continue to operate and keep making reductions of carbon.  When you purchase the CC's I give you a certificate transferring one ton of carbon reduction to you for every ton you purchase.  Thus by purchasing the CC from me I become your carbon reduction agent and the net result is a reduction in the amount of carbon in the atmosphere.  If such a mechanism did not exist as the CC then the renewable energy facility would not have been built and would not have benefited the environment. 

As I said earlier this is quite complex and I have to adhere to certain rules and oversight by bodies set up to ensure I am actually making a reduction and doing so within the guidelines and rules. 

Now lets discuss the idea that this allows polluters to continue to pollute.
It is true that you have the option of either reducing yourself or purchasing the reduction from me.  The difference in some peoples minds is that you can afford to pay someone to do your work for you and they do not like that.  The question I will ask anyone that has this problem is don't we all have someone do work for us that we are either incapable of doing or unwilling to do?  The obvious answer is yes.  Then the next and final question is what is the difference?

As long as we reduce the amount of CO2 being placed in atmosphere what difference does it matter how you accomplished it.

What does matter is if you do nothing!  No reduce, reuse, recycle or purchase CC's is not the answer. 

We all create the carbon it is up to all of us to take a hand in reducing it!

Use the links below to go to the EPA Carbon Footprint calculator.  Using this tool you can determine your carbon footprint and how much you want/need to reduce.

Thank you,








Here is a link to the EPA's carbon footprint calculator.  Once you have calculated your carbon footprint you can then contact us to purchase CC's to offset your emissions.

Thank you,

http://epa.gov/climatechange/emissions/ind_calculator.html