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Five Bright Ideas to Get on a Low Carb(on) Diet

http://greenvillemagazine.com/featuredarticles.htm

by Lydia Dishman

Kirbie Crowe, Membership and Special Events director of Upstate Forever, doesn’t consider herself an environmentalist. “Environmentally-conscious,” she clarifies, “I do recycle.” Yet she recently paid a nominal extra fee to American Airlines when purchasing a plane ticket to offset the carbon emissions for a flight to Chicago. “When I bought the ticket there was an option to offset the entire round-trip flight for an additional $5 or $6. They made it very easy to add on.”

She’s not alone. With the recordbreaking temperatures and drought conditions of this past scorcher of a summer still in our collective memory, climate change (love recent Nobel winner Al Gore or hate him) is not only hard to ignore, it has become a business. According to Cool Air-Clean Planet, a non-profit group that researches ways to fight global warming, the average U.S. citizen emits 21 tons of carbon dioxide annually, which is much higher than the 4.5 ton average rate of the global citizen. For those who still want and need to travel, or are not willing to give up their SUV, organizations have cropped up across the country to allow companies and individuals to neutralize their carbon footprint.

Simply put, with a few clicks of a mouse and a cost between $5 and $50, they can purchase “carbon credits” to offset the amount of energy they use. Upstate Forever as an organization has done just that. Executive Director Brad Wyche, says they have purchased carbon offset credits from the for-profit
company, TerraPass to neutralize the output from both their main office in Greenville and their office in Spartanburg for an entire year.

TerraPasses can be purchased online at www.terrapass.com in different denominations. The site offers several different calculators that can figure out emissions rates for cars, flights, homes and businesses. There is even a calculator for dorms. TerraPass states they have already reduced over 500 million pounds of CO2 pollution by funding clean energy projects such as wind and biodiesel; biomass using dairy farm methane; and industrial efficiency that turns waste from landfills into electricity.
Here in Greenville, Virginia Simpson, chairwoman of Simpson and Partners says their program A.C.E.S.
(Applied Credits for Environmental Sustainability) was initiated to ensure they’d be on the leading edge of consumer thinking. “Environmental stewardship is one of our areas of expertise. We use the program primarily for market research on how to utilize emission credits for our consulting clients.”

She believes virtually every business can benefit by wise use of environmental resources and says, “Being a good steward good for the bottom line.” A.C.E.S. sells carbon credits at different membership
levels based on the size of the vehicle you drive from motorcycle to light truck, and bases the emissions rate at averages usually five to ten times the weight of the vehicle. Bought online at
www.acesprogram.net, the carbon credits, purchased through the Chicago Climate Exchange, are used to
invest in environmentally friendly projects such as reforestation, renewable energy sources, alternative fuels and new methods of carbon sequestration through ecofriendly waste management or
waste-into-energy.

Simpson also points out that not all carbon emissions are created equal. “A carbon emission credit is an umbrella term that equals one metric ton of CO2 not released,” she explains. But there are different kinds of greenhouse gases. Methane which occurs naturally when plants or other organic compounds, such as manure, decompose is actually 20x more than a ton of CO2when calculated for carbon equivalents. She says, “We think it makes sense to start by cleaning all that waste.” Projects on the horizon for her company include capping the lagoon at Clemson’s dairy farm to turn that methane into energy.

For each of these businesses, there are plenty of skeptics who say that climate change is not a reality and doubt whether the offset programs are really making a difference. Some believe they are just a way to assuage the guilt of maintaining a consumer lifestyle. Simpson disagrees, “We’ve created a new financial instrument. Carbon credits form the incentive and financing mechanism to clean up. It is an expensive deal for a farmer to clean up methane. Through organizations like ours, money is aggregated. Then a group like Environmental Credit orporation will pay the farmer to cap his lagoon in return for carbon credits. They will hold credits for future sale, much like commodities trading.” She explains that the regulation comes from the verification that greenhouse gases have been removed by a waste
management firm.

Anyone thinking about purchasing offsets should research the organization’s policies and projects before turning over any money. Reputable companies list all the pertinent information about their operations as well as ways to track the verifications. David Anderssen, LEED AP, Designer and Sustainability Consultant with the Johnston Design Group says, “I hate to think that participation
in a carbon offset program is displacing money that would be better spent to expand sustainable options in our region. I would rather donate to a local land conservancy agency or power company to expand their renewable energy program than to participate in a carbon offset program that expands a wind farm in Oregon. If I decide to participate in a carbon offset program rather than put money in a savings account toward a photovoltaic array for my house, then I would be sure the program has a positive impact on my community before subscribing.”

Anderssen also believes that carbon offsets are not a substitution for reasonable lifestyle changes that reduce your carbon footprint. So, in addition to the neutralizing power of a click, there are other, simple things you can do to get both you and your business on a low-carbon diet.

Here are five easy fixes—

Breathe Easier
We humans exhale carbon dioxide simply to live. To offset the gases in your immediate environment place CO2 gulping plants within your home, as well as trees outside. The Tufts University
Climate Initiative found that a grown tree can absorb between 3 and 15 pounds of carbon dioxide each year and according to the American Public Power Association, landscaping that shades a home can cut air conditioning use by 50 percent.

Eat Better
Nothing beats the flavor of fresh, and it certainly cuts down on the emissions used to refrigerate and truck fruits, meats and vegetables thousands of miles. For an extensive list of who is farming organically right in our backyard visit www.gofohealthandeducation.org. CEO Viviane Trama says the
organization’s mission is two-fold: to influence and motivate local farmers to utilize their land in a sustainable manner and to bring awareness of the value of organic farming methods to Greenville.
As such, GOFO has programs to educate and distribute the bounty of great food available to us right here.

Stay Warmer (and Cooler)
John Carroll, owner of GreenBuild, recommends insulating your house to reduce the amount of carbon required to heat and cool it. He is a fan of Icynene, a state-of-the-art, spray-in-place soft foam insulation as well as structural insulated panels of expanded polystyrene foam. Rather than utilizing
the toxic chemicals of old, these new sprays and panels use water as a blowing agent. For more information on installing this type of insulation write to Carroll at john@greenbuildsc.com.

Shine Brighter
If every home in the country replaced one light bulb with a compact fluorescent bulb, it would be like ditching 800,000 cars and would save enough energy to light more than 2.5 million homes for a year, according to Energy Star, a joint program between the EPA and the U.S. Department of Energy. Take a page from the Hubbell Lighting Center headquarters playbook. Despite using hundreds of lights inside and out, their energyconserving choices will save about 2.6 million kilowatts and 1.5 million gallons
of water per year avoiding nearly 1000 tons of carbon emissions over a building of comparable size.

Pay Smarter
Virtually (literally) is the best way to pay. From the larger financial institutions such as Bank of America and Carolina First to boutique banks such as Pinnacle, online bill paying not only cuts greenhouse gases but also preserves trees to the tune of over 5,000 pounds and two tons respectively for every 38,000 bills paid online according to NACHA, a non-profit group. They also say you’ll save about $150 per year in check costs and late fees.

You can take that to the bank.