I am embarrassed to say we took 2 round trip short haul flights in May alone. One to the Outer Hebrides for a Scottish isles wedding and one to Berlin to see the sights. We did try to take trains to both destinations but the costs and travel time were not possible.
That said, the flights were still quite costly (though 1/2 as much as trains) and as I say every time I'm stuck in an airport, flying always takes way longer than people perceive. By the time you get to the airport, go through security, wait for boarding, lay-overs, delays, wait for luggage at other end... The 630 miles door to door to the Hebrides was 9 hours from London via Glasgow and Berlin (about 650 miles) was 6 hours each way including delays. If we had used the trains and ferries we would have only traveled a few more hours each way.
To offset these travels, plus our household emissions, I did some carbon neutralization research and shopping today. Everyone talks about carbon offsetting but I don't know anyone who has actually done it who recommends any company in particular. So I did a Google search to get me on my way.
+ Carbonneutral.com - They do gifts and household offsetting packages. But when I tried to calculate my emissions and find appropriate offsetting projects, their website structure and design got in the way and I went in circles. Noble cause, bad website. If you're the perseverant type, give it a look.
Frustrated, I tried my search again and ended up at:
+ Climatecare.org - This website is easy to get around, has clear information on all projects, videos of projects in action and a long list of partners. The easy to use calculators help you figure out how much CO2 you've emitted with flights, household and driving and the cost to offset it through their various programs which include:
Bioenergy (turning crop waste into biomass briquettes)
Human energy (replacing diesel water pumps on farms with human powered treadle pumps,much like the play pumps)
Wind energy - building wind turbine infrastructures
Efficient lighting and cooking stoves
Rain forest restoration
Each flight we took in May was about .4 tons of CO2 for the both of us. And I rounded up for our household emissions (though the husband just reminded me we already subscribe to green energy sources for our electricity). All in the costs of offsetting for the year was about £35 ($65 dollars).
I also did a quick calculation for my company, where staff fly constantly to meetings with oversees customers and we have a huge, old office with air conditioning that's on even when the windows are open and the cost was in the range of £4,000 pounds to offset. Me and our office manager only just got paper recycling costs sorted (we now recycle all paper) - this will be my next mission.
That said, the flights were still quite costly (though 1/2 as much as trains) and as I say every time I'm stuck in an airport, flying always takes way longer than people perceive. By the time you get to the airport, go through security, wait for boarding, lay-overs, delays, wait for luggage at other end... The 630 miles door to door to the Hebrides was 9 hours from London via Glasgow and Berlin (about 650 miles) was 6 hours each way including delays. If we had used the trains and ferries we would have only traveled a few more hours each way.
To offset these travels, plus our household emissions, I did some carbon neutralization research and shopping today. Everyone talks about carbon offsetting but I don't know anyone who has actually done it who recommends any company in particular. So I did a Google search to get me on my way.
+ Carbonneutral.com - They do gifts and household offsetting packages. But when I tried to calculate my emissions and find appropriate offsetting projects, their website structure and design got in the way and I went in circles. Noble cause, bad website. If you're the perseverant type, give it a look.
Frustrated, I tried my search again and ended up at:
+ Climatecare.org - This website is easy to get around, has clear information on all projects, videos of projects in action and a long list of partners. The easy to use calculators help you figure out how much CO2 you've emitted with flights, household and driving and the cost to offset it through their various programs which include:
Bioenergy (turning crop waste into biomass briquettes)
Human energy (replacing diesel water pumps on farms with human powered treadle pumps,much like the play pumps)
Wind energy - building wind turbine infrastructures
Efficient lighting and cooking stoves
Rain forest restoration
Each flight we took in May was about .4 tons of CO2 for the both of us. And I rounded up for our household emissions (though the husband just reminded me we already subscribe to green energy sources for our electricity). All in the costs of offsetting for the year was about £35 ($65 dollars).
I also did a quick calculation for my company, where staff fly constantly to meetings with oversees customers and we have a huge, old office with air conditioning that's on even when the windows are open and the cost was in the range of £4,000 pounds to offset. Me and our office manager only just got paper recycling costs sorted (we now recycle all paper) - this will be my next mission.
Comments