I've been making considerable progress on reducing my carbon footprint over the last few years by not owning a car and using public transport or walking wherever possible.
Obviously the feasibility of this will depend on where you live but for me it has required little lifestyle adjustment.
There are two aspects to becoming carbon neutral:
- Ensuring that my carbon footprint is as small as possible
- Making positive actions to offset my remaining carbon emissions
This year I intend to source my household energy from an approved green energy provider and to continue to switch my electronic devices to those with greater energy efficiency.
Offsetting my remaining carbon emission's is a more controversial issue. Technically a carbon offset is a means for me to spend money to excise my guilt. The problem is both where to spend the money and ensuring that you don't just spend money to enable you to continue to produce excessive CO2.
I could spend my money at one of the many established agencies that have sprung up in the last few years to offset carbon emissions but I'm personally sceptical about the motivation of many of these companies.
Instead I've elected to contribute directly to tree planting projects. This will probably mean that I can't calculate exactly my carbon offset but this isn't an exercise in mathematics.
This year I also intend to reduce my international travel to the minimum required.
For example I will not be flying around the globe to conduct a training session if there is a perfectly suitable alternative trainer in the locality or I can use IT to create a virtual presence.
I encourage you all to think about our planet and to do whatever you can to ensure our children and grandchildren have a planet to live on.