The green building movement is taking hold in the Midwest according to the Detroit News. Michigan ranks 3rd behind Oregon and California in the number of "Green" buildings as certified by the US Green Building Council.
As energy prices increase it is now becoming increasingly profitable for businesses, municipalities and homeowners to invest in energy efficiency.
Monday, December 10, 2007
Thursday, December 6, 2007
Comparison of Carbon Offsets
Do you know what your carbon footprint is? It is the total of all of your activities that result in the production of CO2. This includes driving your car, taking a flight, using electricity supplied by coal or natural gas plants, and heating your home.
The Nature Conservancy has a good website to calculate your carbon footprint:
www.nature.org/initiatives/climatechange/calculator/
Now that you've figured out how much CO2 you are responsible for, what do you want to do about it? The first step is to try to reduce your impact as much as possible. Then, you can purchase carbon offsets to take care of the rest.
Carbon offsets come in a variety of different forms.
1) Some programs plant trees to essentially "soak up" CO2 from the atmosphere, which has the added benefit of creating animal habitat, however it takes decades for the CO2 to be removed.
2) Other programs reward companies for reducing their CO2 emissions through increased efficiency (similar to the European cap and trade systems that may be adopted here in the US).
3) Finally, the best option is to buy "green energy" through renewable sources such as wind and solar power. This works by consumers paying the premium for the difference in price between renewable and fossil fuel power generation.
Ecobusinesslinks.com compiled an excellent review of some current carbon offset programs that you can choose from to offset your own carbon footprint.
See:
www.ecobusinesslinks.com/carbon_offset_wind_credits_carbon_reduction.htm
The Nature Conservancy has a good website to calculate your carbon footprint:
www.nature.org/initiatives/climatechange/calculator/
Now that you've figured out how much CO2 you are responsible for, what do you want to do about it? The first step is to try to reduce your impact as much as possible. Then, you can purchase carbon offsets to take care of the rest.
Carbon offsets come in a variety of different forms.
1) Some programs plant trees to essentially "soak up" CO2 from the atmosphere, which has the added benefit of creating animal habitat, however it takes decades for the CO2 to be removed.
2) Other programs reward companies for reducing their CO2 emissions through increased efficiency (similar to the European cap and trade systems that may be adopted here in the US).
3) Finally, the best option is to buy "green energy" through renewable sources such as wind and solar power. This works by consumers paying the premium for the difference in price between renewable and fossil fuel power generation.
Ecobusinesslinks.com compiled an excellent review of some current carbon offset programs that you can choose from to offset your own carbon footprint.
See:
www.ecobusinesslinks.com/carbon_offset_wind_credits_carbon_reduction.htm
Monday, December 3, 2007
ALT Hotels go green using Earth power (geothermal)
ALT Hotels in Canada is reducing the impacts of their guests on the environment by implementing a suite of cost-saving and energy-saving modifications. Geothermal heat pumps will both heat the hotels in the winter and cool them in the summer. The rooms will also be outfitted with a system to detect when guests are not in the room and subsequently turn off the lights and cut back the AC or heat until the guests return.
Their website is: http://althotels.ca
Their website is: http://althotels.ca
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