It's our belief that we should leave things better than the way we found them. We do it with your computers, and we're doing it in our community. In the early months of 2007, we committed to leave the planet a little better for our presence, too. How? We're offsetting the carbon emissions of the entire company - in all our daily operations - from this point on.

In fact, we're aiming to offset about 120% of our yearly emissions. We're focusing on three things: sustainable energy generation; energy conservation & efficiency programs; and tropical reforestation. If this is all Greek to you, hang on for the primer.

Sustainable generation includes things like wind and solar, along with other power production methods - thing is, they're all more expensive than, say, burning coal. But as more "green" energy is produced, it becomes less expensive; and once it's as cheap as coal, conventional wisdom says the major producers will start generating power via more environmentally responsible methods. So by funding sustainable generation, we're hoping to help shift the balance away from fossil-fueled plants in the future - and we're bringing more green power online now.

Energy efficiency programs can come in a variety of forms, but most of them (in the United States) work because of the Clean Air Act, which allows power producers to trade pollution credits on the open market. (In the UK, where we opened our first international branch in 2007, energy efficiency may soon become law. Legislation that would cut Britain’s global warming gases by 60 percent by the year 2050 is in the works and likely to be passed.) Power producers can trade the difference between their actual emissions and the amount they're allowed - and usually, they do this amongst themselves. But we're working with a group that buys those same credits, and removes them from trade permanently - by taking carbon (and other gases, too) out of the trading economy, the overall amount of pollution is lowered immediately.

Reforestation is exactly what it sounds like - planting trees. Trees, of course, remove carbon from the atmosphere (remember your high school biology?); but their own emissions, in the form of water vapor, also lead to increased cloudiness, which in turn reflects more sunlight back into space - and keeps that heat energy from reaching the planet's surface. Current research shows that tropical reforestation is what's most effective, so that's what we're concentrating on.

Reduce Your Own Carbon Footprint

Want to know more? A good place to start is the wikipedia’s link on Carbon Offset.

Want to offset your own emissions? Awesome. The first place to start is with your daily activities.

For instance, over 60% of our staff uses public transportation or bicycles to and from work each day, saving a considerable amount of carbon emissions per year. By commuting to work instead of driving, you can reduce your carbon footprint.

We also purchase recycled products, and what we cannot reuse we in turn recycle, and that includes all paper, cardboard boxes, plastic, glass and aluminum containers, through our in-house Recycling efforts. The use of recycled products and recycling both help to reduce the carbon output of your own "supply chain" - the companies that provide the goods that you use.

While these activities help a great deal in cutting daily waste, it is not enough to completely reverse our carbon footprint on the world. This is where offsetting comes into play. We work with two companies, Carbonfund.org and Trees for the Future, to set up renewable energy sources here in our own backyards, to get educated, and to donate for reforestation in tropical climates, which is where planting trees will help our humanitarian battle against global warming the most.

Some things to keep in mind, though: carbon offsetting is still very young, and is currently unregulated - so it's important to check out where your donations go, and to ask some basic questions - like, is this a legitimate charity, or a for-profit company? Do they allow public review of their financial statements?

Carbonfund.org

Carbonfund.org supports a variety of alternative energy projects in the USA and globally. Their renewable energy projects typically include wind, solar, geothermal and biomass energy sources. Our support also helps Carbonfund.org purchase and retire renewable electricity certificates and other credits generated from renewable energy projects.

More information about Carbonfund.org can be found at http://www.carbonfund.org/site.

Trees for the Future

Trees for the Future is a hands-on people-to-people program that works at the grassroots level and have been planting trees throughout the world since the early 1970's. By restoring tree cover to barren lands, they have a very cost-effective way to continuously remove carbon dioxide (the major "greenhouse gas") from the global atmosphere. And by starting such projects in the developing countries of the humid tropics, they are able to plant about five times as many trees and remove about 15 times as much carbon for the same cost as planting trees in the USA.

More information about Trees for the Future be found at http://www.plant-trees.org.

Fnally, it's important to remember that offsetting can't be the whole answer - it's not fair to just pay some money and then forget there's a problem. Our Zero Carbon Initiative is one part of our efforts, along with recycling everything we can, and working more efficiently in our daily lives.

In fact, our Managed Macs service incorporates remote access as one of the primary methods of providing tech support. Remote services reduce the amount of travel that we do, and thus the carbon footprint of our business.

Related Topics Include: Customer Recycling Program and In-House Recycling.