Green Living

Avoiding a guilt trip with carbon offsets

I recently traveled for the first time through my city’s spanking-new environmentally friendly airport. (If a facility that is party to more than a million tons of greenhouse gas emissions per year can be considered environmentally friendly.) Shorter runways shrink fuel consumption. Soaring expanses of window open to views of air activity, take advantage of solar power, and reduce need for artificial lighting.

But as I sat at one of the terminal’s eateries awaiting my pizza, my reflections shed light on the decidedly un-green aspects of travel, from jetting off in a half-empty plane to paper and plastic waste from restaurants to daily towel changes in hotels.

One way to offset your travel-induced environmental damage? Plant a tree. Or build a wind turbine. Without getting your hands dirty. Carbon offsetting Web sites such as nativeenergy.com help you calculate your travel impact, apply a cost, and offer an opportunity to donate that money to an effort that counters the damage—rainforest protection or alternative energy research, for example.

How can you be sure that the fund is legitimate? Some resources such as the Environmental Defense Fund research and identify projects they consider worthy. My friend Neal, however, suggests, instead of donating through a carbon calculating Web site, keeping your money local and contributing to a cause you’re close to, such as a community tree-planting organization.

It may be impossible—or undesirable—to avoid travel, but carbon-offsetting can help make your next experience less of a guilt trip.

[Corrected formatting and added EDF hyperlink 1/5/09]