I remember reading a magazine article perhaps a year or two ago which described a day in the life of some celebrity (I don’t recall who), but the article went into great detail about all the things this person did to be environmentally responsible. One of the things had to do with reducing her carbon footprint for the airplane trip she was taking that day. I didn’t really understand exactly what you were supposed to do and was mystified as to how you could calculate an amount for something like that.
Today, I was reading an announcement from United Airlines stating that they have partnered with Conservation International www.conservation.org and Sustainable Travel International www.sustainabletravelinternational.org to make it easy for travelers to offset carbon emissions as a result of their travel by donating money to protect forests or contribute to renewable energy programs. So, I decided to do a little research.
Both websites have Carbon Calculators that are really easy to use. On the Conservation International calculator you select from a range of miles, it calculates your carbon footprint for those miles and gives you a suggestion as to how much to donate. For instance, flying 500 to 1,000 miles (Boston to Atlanta) comes out to a carbon footprint of .6 for one person and the suggested donation is $7. You can go ahead and make a donation right there.
I like the Carbon Calculator on the Sustainable Travel International website. You can enter your starting point, your destination, the number of passengers, flight class and select round trip or one way. So, if I want to run away from Denver to the island of Kauai, my carbon footprint would be 2.46 tons of CO2 and I should make a donation of $88.44. The calculator can also be used for driving, home energy, hotel stays and events. Once you have your calculation, you can go ahead and make your tax deductible contribution. Talk about simple.
Now, if only I could afford that plane ticket to Kauai. Heavy sigh.
Has anyone out there actually done this? And do you do it every time that you travel?
