carbon offsets

Carbon Offsetting is a way to mitigate carbon emissions from sources like cars, airplanes, and power plants. When an individual or company buys carbon offsets, the money is used to help support new renewable energy projects, such as wind, solar, bio-mass and geo-thermal. These projects reduce atmospheric green-house gases (GHG) by decreasing both the demand for energy from older fossil fuel burning plants and the need to build new plants.

From the time we get out of bed in the morning until we turn out the lights at night, most of our daily activities are responsible for GHG emissions. Simple tasks like turning on lights, taking a hot shower, driving to work, running the dishwasher and watching television all use electricity or gas. Electricity and gas in our homes and work is mostly produced by fossil fuel burning plants that emit green-house gases. Our gasoline powered cars which we drive to work or to go shopping also emit CO2. In fact, just about all activities that require energy are also responsible for GHG emissions, the major factor causing Global Warming.

Our goal at End Fossil Fuel is to help you minimize your contribution to Global Warming, by providing a way to reduce green-house gas emissions. It is important that you first learn to re-use, recycle and become energy efficient. After taking reasonable conservation measures, carbon offsetting allows you to reduce the balance of all your GHG emissions. Read more to find out how we help you do this.

The first step is to calculate your total CO2 emissions or "carbon footprint." With our easy-to-use carbon calculator developed by WRI (World Resources Institute), End Fossil Fuel makes it simple to determine your footprint. To use the calculator:

1. Input your annual electricity usage (obtained from utility invoices)
2. Input your total gasoline consumption, based on how may miles you drive
3. Press Calculate

Our calculator will estimate the total pounds of CO2 emissions you produce.

Use the number that you obtain from the carbon calculator to purchase a carbon offset package that is equal to your CO2 emissions. The package you purchase will directly support a new renewable energy project that produces clean energy while emitting no green house gases.

The purchase of a carbon offset package gives you ownership to a specific reduction in GHG emissions. This is possible because laws enable renewable power generators to separate the sale of each megawatt hour of electricity they produce (in the form of electrons) from that electricity's "green" attributes. The "green" attributes are the reduction of GHG emissions that otherwise would have occurred if a fossil fuel plant had produced the same amount of energy. The power industry uses Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) to account for and track ownership to these GHG reductions. RECs are a market-based commodity that can be purchased, sold and retired. By purchasing and then retiring the rights to GHG reductions, tracked thru RECs, End Fossil Fuel is able to sell you ownership to a specific GHG reduction.

We use Green-e Climate to guarantee the transparency and integrity of our carbon offsets. Green-e Climate is the nation's first and only certification program for carbon offsets sold to consumers on the retail market. This program requires that our projects are new and meet strictly defined quality standards. Specifically, Green-e audits the RECs we purchase and retire, as well as the projects we support. The objective is to guarantee customers that our carbon offsets are unique, never sold twice and come from projects that are not "business as usual."