What Is Your Carbon Footprint?
carboncounter.org
If you know how many therms of gas, kwh of electricity, and gallons of heating oil and gasoline you use in a year, they can give you a very good estimate of how much CO2 your personal life is putting into our atmosphere.
Not only that, but their affiliation with the Climate Trust allows you to make a tax-deductible purchase of carbon offsets. This federally registered and accountable non-profit invests the money in forward-thinking projects that reduce the amount of CO2 emitted, allowing you to officially make yourself carbon neutral. It's not free, but it is much cheaper than I expected when I first heard of carbon offsets.
I drive as little as possible, but I live in a rather drafty, 4-bedroom house and that put me around average for the nation. They estimate that I emitted 14.89 tons of CO2 last year and for $178.68, they offset it for me. They also sparked me thinking about what I could do to reduce.
1) My utility bill allows me to switch partially or fully to wind power. They are sending me the forms and I'm going to switch fully. That cuts my carbon footprint in half to 7.19 and studying their rates I find that it would have just cost me $66 last year to have been on wind power. And it would have reduced the cost of my offset by $92.40. So when you take into account that I intend to purchase offsets from now on, wind power is actually CHEAPER for me.
2) I have a ratty old refrigerator that I bought when I bought my house. When I bought it the door handles were already broken off and the light didn't work. But lately, it hasn't been staying closed and it has been leaving puddles on my floor. I've been thinking of replacing it, but I'm stingy and it still technically "works". But carboncounter pointed me to a tool to estimate the energy use of my old refrigerator. Based on its size and age (they build them much more efficiently than they used to) it is estimated to use 1884 kwh per year (In reality, this is aggravated by the door not staying close, but also mitigated by the light not working). I went to the store and found an attractive stainless steel finish refrigerator like a wanted for $598 that is estimated to use 474 kwh per year. It won't save on my carbon footprint, since my electricity is now all green, but at the price of windpower, that will save me $106.56 per year. In other words, the refrigerator pays for itself in energy bills in 6 years and I get to enjoy the nicer refrigerator for free. That's a heck of an investment.
If you know how many therms of gas, kwh of electricity, and gallons of heating oil and gasoline you use in a year, they can give you a very good estimate of how much CO2 your personal life is putting into our atmosphere.
Not only that, but their affiliation with the Climate Trust allows you to make a tax-deductible purchase of carbon offsets. This federally registered and accountable non-profit invests the money in forward-thinking projects that reduce the amount of CO2 emitted, allowing you to officially make yourself carbon neutral. It's not free, but it is much cheaper than I expected when I first heard of carbon offsets.
I drive as little as possible, but I live in a rather drafty, 4-bedroom house and that put me around average for the nation. They estimate that I emitted 14.89 tons of CO2 last year and for $178.68, they offset it for me. They also sparked me thinking about what I could do to reduce.
1) My utility bill allows me to switch partially or fully to wind power. They are sending me the forms and I'm going to switch fully. That cuts my carbon footprint in half to 7.19 and studying their rates I find that it would have just cost me $66 last year to have been on wind power. And it would have reduced the cost of my offset by $92.40. So when you take into account that I intend to purchase offsets from now on, wind power is actually CHEAPER for me.
2) I have a ratty old refrigerator that I bought when I bought my house. When I bought it the door handles were already broken off and the light didn't work. But lately, it hasn't been staying closed and it has been leaving puddles on my floor. I've been thinking of replacing it, but I'm stingy and it still technically "works". But carboncounter pointed me to a tool to estimate the energy use of my old refrigerator. Based on its size and age (they build them much more efficiently than they used to) it is estimated to use 1884 kwh per year (In reality, this is aggravated by the door not staying close, but also mitigated by the light not working). I went to the store and found an attractive stainless steel finish refrigerator like a wanted for $598 that is estimated to use 474 kwh per year. It won't save on my carbon footprint, since my electricity is now all green, but at the price of windpower, that will save me $106.56 per year. In other words, the refrigerator pays for itself in energy bills in 6 years and I get to enjoy the nicer refrigerator for free. That's a heck of an investment.
posted by Axaday | 11:30 AM
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