Average Joe Goes Green - Part 1 - Getting Started

I am just your average Joe. Working, and raising a family. I guess I’m your typical American: making mortgage payments on my home and loan payments on our two cars. I have read the news about global climate change and even saw Al Gore’s movie: An Inconvenient Truth. People can argue about the exact cause, but it’s pretty obvious to me that someone has to do something to reverse what is happening. In addition, with the ups and downs of energy and fuel prices, and hearing talk about “alternative” and “clean” energy, I started looking into what I could do to save money, help out the environment, and create an example for my family. I decided to Go Green.

Enlisting the help of my family, we decided to see what our impact is on the environment. This is known as a Carbon Footprint. According to the Wikipedia, a carbon footprint is a measure of human activity on the environment in terms of greenhouse gases produced, in units of pounds of carbon dioxide. Just about everything we do, from washing our clothes to driving a car to lighting an office building, increases our impact or carbon footprint. The carbon each of us generates adds to the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, which adds to the planet’s heating. The major environmental goal in Going Green is to become as close to carbon neutral as possible. Using today’s technologies, we found a tool online called a Carbon Calculator. By taking a few minutes to complete the information on the major categories of Vehicles (cars), Electricity, Travel and Natural Gas, we had our estimate of our family’s impact, which was a surprising 20.91 tons of carbon produced annually. These figures do not even consider the indirect effects of our plastic, paper, water consumption, nor emissions from other fuel burning devices such as lawn equipment, motorcycles, RV’s and boats. Wow…it’s no wonder we have such an enormous environmental problem but we decided, we were going to do our part.

The company which sponsored the Carbon Calculator we used offered Carbon Offset certificates for sale as a method to offset our family’s impact. There are dozens of energy companies offering these certificates. When you purchase Carbon Offsets, your purchase is used to offset your household's emissions using the following methods: 1) Buying renewable energy credits (RECs) from solar, wind and biomass facilities around the country 2) Funding reforestation projects through the carbon offset company’s partnerships with organizations; 3) Supporting other project-based carbon offset technologies - for example, new projects to increase energy efficiency. This method has become quite popular, especially for companies who are also concerned about their carbon footprint. These certificates even make innovative gifts for friends and family. However, we decided that there were many things, we as a family could do to reduce our carbon footprint, save energy, save money and help our environment. The purchase of carbon offset certificates would be something we might consider down the road, after we had exhausted all of the carbon reducing methods available to us. But we might consider buying them as gifts, in the hopes of encouraging those close to us to also Go Green.

In future articles, I will detail the steps our family is taking and provide ideas and recommendations you might use with your family. I invite you to follow us and join us on our family’s journey towards a greener and healthier lifestyle.

Keith Winn is the COO of GreenProfit Solutions, Inc. which assists businesses in becoming environmentally responsible. You may view their website at www.greenprofitsolutions.com or e-mail Keith at kwinn@greenprofitsolutions.com .