A New Way to Ask, 'How Green Is My Conscience?' cooldriver.org

[lindisfarne]

Anyone have an opinion about whether cooldriver.org, conservationfund.org, or terrapass.com is better (please explain why - terrapass.com is a for-profit company ... )

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/25/business/yourmoney/25green.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1151231017-4hYHHQhAjnblYeFOfVTTCA&pagewanted=print
<snip>
Call them green upgrades: easy ways for consumers to help the environment without changing their behavior. Such upgrades have been proliferating: Skiers, for example, can spend an extra $2 at some resorts to offset the pollution produced in a drive to the mountains; the money goes to environmental organizations. On Web sites like TerraPass.com or CoolDriver.org, drivers can total a car's pollution for a year and direct a corresponding sum to clean-energy projects.

Similar opportunities to become "climate neutral" can be found at concerts, music festivals and sports events, and even while shopping: On June 9, Gaiam, a retailer in Broomfield, Colo., that sells products including solar lighting and organic cotton sheets, started offering a $2 "carbon neutral" shipping option, with the money going to the Conservation Fund to plant trees.
<snip>
Some are easy to grasp. At the Lenox, a hotel in Boston, the Eco Chic package, at $309, costs more than a usual one-night stay ($239 and up). In return, guests get breakfast, passes for Boston public transportation — so they don't have to drive a car — and a copy of "The Consumer's Guide to Effective Environmental Choices: Practical Advice from the Union of Concerned Scientists." And the hotel buys enough renewable power to offset the greenhouse gas produced during the guest's stay: about 52 pounds of carbon emissions a night.
<snip>
When consumers lack the option locally, they can buy their own green tags or other "carbon offset products," like financing efforts for clean-energy projects and reforestation elsewhere in the country. For instance, Ms. Chafe came across NativeEnergy, a private company whose majority owners are 11 Native American tribes in the Dakotas, Nebraska and Wyoming. For $8 a month, it offsets 100 percent of customers' electrical use by supporting farm methane projects that harness gas produced by cow manure. The company is based in Charlotte, Vt.
<snip>
---hmm seems like the $70 hotel premium is quite a bit more than it needs to be - unless all the money beyond the cost of the public transit passes goes to some conservation org. ------- Regarding the opening paragraphs of the article (not pasted in) about the woman in Baltimore who couldn't figure out the recycling schedule: I know someone who lives there. She puts a calendar on her refrigerator. It's pretty straightforward - no worse than other cities who recycle on an every-other week basis (but no more than 2x a month so sometimes 3 weeks go between pickups). I don't have much sympathy for people who complain about recycling being difficult. It's no more difficult than putting your trash in the garbage, and it makes for a lot less going into the garbage.

[NJCher]

1. while the end result is laudable

I have a little problem with the idea of it "costing more" to be green.

The problem is that the eco-friendly solution is up against a standard where the cost is spread out to the commons, i.e., the world.

Also, the only people paying are people who are already aware of the problem. If everyone had to pay, things might change real fast.

Still, it's encouraging that such programs are out there.




Cher

[lindisfarne]

2. Yes, I completely agree. I was pretty amazed at how little it cost me

as calculated at the conservation website. I even went back and increased my numbers well beyond my actual (miles driven/flown and other energy used), just to see how it would affect things and I was still coming in at under $30 annually. Of course, even the calculators don't include everything, such as water usage, energy used to get food to you, etc.

[NMDemDist2]

3. howse about I just plant the trees myself? I need them for windbreaks

and shade anyway which will reduce my need for power at the source AND I can save the $$ i'd send to them to go toward my new solar panels for the roof

whaddayathink?