Carbon FootprintReduction

Why it Matters

Offsetting your unavoidable CO2 emissions is a practical and immediate way to take ownership of your personal contribution to climate change. With COTAP, you’re addressing global economic inequality too. Offsetting also reveals both the need for cleaner energy sources and opportunities for reducing your carbon footprint.

Reduce your Carbon Footprint from
driving

Alternatives to driving
When possible, walk or ride your bike in order to avoid carbon emissions completely. Carpooling and public transportation drastically reduce CO2 emissions by spreading them out over many riders.

Drive a low carbon vehicle
High mileage doesn’t always mean low CO2 emissions. All vehicles have an estimated miles-per-gallon rating. Electric cars emit no CO2 if they’re charged with clean electricity. If you don’t charge it with your home’s solar panels AND live somewhere like WY, MO, MO, WV, or KY you’re BETTER OFF with a hybrid or high-mileage gas/diesel car. Here’s why. After incentives and gas savings, it essentially costs nothing to switch to an electric car like the the Nissan Leaf.

Get a hitch-mounted cargo rack
Don’t buy a minivan or SUV if you don’t need 4WD and/or will only occasionally need the extra space. A receiver hitch and a rack like this one only cost a few hundred bucks. Avoid roof-top boxes, which cost much more, increase aerodynamic drag, and decrease fuel economy.

Driving style
Speeding and unnecessary acceleration reduce mileage by up to 33%, waste gas and money, and increase your carbon footprint.

Tire inflation and other tuning
Properly inflated tires improve your gas mileage by up to 3%. It also helps to use the correct grade of motor oil, and to keep your engine tuned, because some maintenance fixes, like fixing faulty oxygen sensors, can increase fuel efficiency by up to 40%.

Avoid traffic
Being stuck in traffic wastes gas and unneccessarily creates CO2. Use traffic websites and apps and go a different way or wait.

Misc.
Combine errands to make fewer trips. Remove excess weight from your car. Use cruise control.

Reduce your Carbon Footprint from
Air Travel

General
Until petroleum-based aviation fuel is replaced, you should avoid flying when possible, fly less frequently, fly shorter distances, and fly economy class.

Leisure Air Travel
Take fewer and longer vacations that are far away, and more frequent and driveable “staycations” closer to home.

Fly Fewer Round Trips
Consider renting a car or taking a train for half of your journey, and only fly the other half.

Work Air Travel
Increase your use of video-conferencing tools like Skype and Facetime.

What Class?
Economy class is best, for the same reasons as carpooling and public transportation. Each flyer’s share of a flight’s carbon emissions is relatively less because it’s spread out over more people.

That’s Economy class
When Prince William flies economy class, he’s leading by example. Then there’s Prince Alwaleed bin Talal al-Saud, or the Sultan of Brunei, who buys entire economy-size planes and convert them into flying palaces.

Don’t fly on Private Jets
In a sense, private jet travel is simply economy/first/business writ large: it should be minimized if not avoided. In terms of CO2 emissions per passenger mile flown, private jets result in the highest emissions by far. If you must fly on private jets, at least select a provider like Paramount Business Jets, which enables you to calculate and offset your emissions.

Don’t buy a Honda
HondaJet, that is. Their cars are fine, though.

Don’t be a space tourist
Watch NOVΛ on PBS instead. Richard Branson’s “spaceline” Virgin Galactic seeks to right the injustice that “most of our planet’s seven billion people have had no opportunity to experience space” and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin promises “life-changing views” of what’s left of our planet.