Carbon Offsetting

Local Carbon Offsetting

OneCoolEarth has partnered with the California Student Sustainability Coalition and the California Energy Tour to conduct carbon audits and provide offset projects for travel emissions.  If you are interested in purchasing local offsets, please contact us.

Why is carbon dioxide important?

Carbon dioxide is a molecule which most commonly takes the form of a gas and occurs naturally in the earth’s atmosphere.  It is a major greenhouse gas and was recently classified by the EPA as a pollutant.  Carbon dioxide in the right amounts is a vital compound in photosynthesis, the basis of plant life, and the basis of the food chain.  Like so many things, carbon dioxide has a good side and a bad side and is not to be feared or ignored, but it should be understood and controlled.

What is the carbon economy?

We might not think about it very often, but everybody emits carbon dioxide–it’s a basic fact of life, the result of simply breathing.  But more than that, practically everything we do in these modern times is linked with carbon emissions, from electricity or gas use when cooking, showering, or reading by lamplight, to driving our kids to school.  Less obviously, the food that we consume emits carbon dioxide indirectly when it is shipped by boat, plane or truck, and when we drive to the grocery store to purchase it.  And this is not to mention the carbon dioxide that was emitted during is growth, processing, packaging and storage–all stages that usually depend on burning fossil fuels and therefore release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.  The story is the same for our clothes, our homes, and nearly all our goods and services.  In short, we live in a carbon economy, where carbon dioxide manifests as an unavoidable side-effect of our daily activities–aside from breathing.

What is local carbon offsetting?

Removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, or preventing its emission in the first place is termed offsetting.  Planting a tree represents one low-tech but effective method of taking excess carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere to combat global warming.  In the case of tree planting, carbon dioxide is sequestered in the form of wood and no longer poses an immediate threat as a greenhouse gas.

OneCoolEarth runs a unique program wherein carbon dioxide is offset in local tree planting projects.  Our plantings happen within the same community that is home to our non-profits employees, volunteers and clients.  Local projects allow for the right solution, at the right place, in the right time.  Created by community insiders for other community insiders, with all stakeholders involved, such projects take a holistic approach to the problem of global warming, maximizing the environmental, social, and economic benefits of the projects.  In the end, these projects are deeply rooted in the needs and cares of the community where they exist, and they are therefore inclined to longer, more successful lifespans.  OneCoolEarth stives to maintain five principles in all of its planting projects: education, restoration, beautification, human utility, and economy.  Click here to read more about our principles.