Carbon offset your holiday travel
I will be driving over 1,400 miles roundtrip in the coming days to celebrate Christmas with the in-laws. This makes me responsible for nearly 1,500 pounds of carbon emissions. I drive a Honda Civic and my output would be even greater if I had an SUV. Flying isn't a much better option as even a 2,000 mile flight can cause an entire ton of emissions. What are a few ways to keep travel greener this year?
We're full of tricks, tips, and ideas for making your holiday season as green as possible. Check out our Green Holiday Guide and have an eco-friendly season!
- Prepare your vehicle well. Make sure that your tires are properly inflated and that your engine is in tiptop shape. This will help to make your car more efficient as well as prevent any unexpected stops along the way.
- Set the cruise control and obey the speed limit. Speeding can increase fuel consumption up to 20% and aggressive driving can hurt even more.
- Buy your own offsets. There are plenty of sites online where you can figure out your carbon output and donate money towards renewable energy. After plugging my travel figures into Carbonfund.org's calculator, I found that a donation of $5.69 will offset my driving. Of course the hotel stay and gifts might set me back more than that. Plus there are all of those trips to Starbucks to avoid family time ... I might as well send $20 and call it a day.
We're full of tricks, tips, and ideas for making your holiday season as green as possible. Check out our Green Holiday Guide and have an eco-friendly season!
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
12-20-2007 @ 1:46PM
Eric Schaefer said...
Indeed even the jet set can play a part, even if they won't give up using their Gulfstream over the holidays (although that would be nice). Terrapass has a convincing pricing structure for offsetting private jet emisssions.
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