Carbon offsets for private jet travel have become a fairly common occurrence but there is also a carbon offset program for another energy-intensive luxury, yachting. Yacht Carbon Offset specializes in balancing greenhouse gas emissions from yacht charters and private yachts. Projects include renewable energy in Brazil, wind power in China's Shanghai Province and a wind farm in Maharastra, India. They stress that their carbon offset projects offer traceability of individual project actions and for the independent verification and certification of the carbon credits generated. They have an interesting stance on forestry projects. Their website says they do not purchase credits from forestry projects because pure tree-planting schemes seek to create an offset by increasing the amount of stored carbon dioxide. This only matters if the trees will never be cut down, otherwise the CO2 will be released again. They instead focus on alternative energy projects.

Their program calculates carbon offsets based on the types of marine fuel types used for the main engines, gensets, tenders and watertoys and even helicopter fuel if required. The motor yacht Lionheart was recently signed up for carbon offsetting through this program. Certainly the easy answer is to say that people shouldn't be cruising these huge yachts in the first place but I think any reasoned effort to be green has merit.

[via Superyacht Times]

Your Centurion card comes with a lot of perks but saving the planet isn't one of them. The first card that purports to do that is the ReDirect Guide Visa , a credit card that promises to help fight climate change with every purchase and offers customers discounts from green businesses. A percentage of each purchase goes to carbon offset programs to fund renewable energy and sustainable development programs through Sustainable Travel International. The card is offered through ShoreBank Pacific which is the first FDIC-insured commercial bank in the U.S. committed to sustainable community development.

Parducci winery, part of the Mendocino Wine Company has announced that they are the first U.S. winery to achieve "carbon neutral status." Wine Business News reports that the winery partnered with the California Climate Action Registry to determine their carbon emissions and then took measures to both lessen and offset them. Mendocino Wine Company has had "mitigation" practices such as solar installation, switching to biodiesel in company vehicles and farm equipment, converting from incandescent to fluorescent lighting, and a local tree-planting program. The winery has also purchased carbon credits, supporting projects that focus on methane and biogas capture, wind power and forest projects within its own bioregion. Mendocino Wine Company's vineyards are also certified Biodynamic, Organic, or Fish Friendly Farming and the company's packaging uses tree-free and recycled papers printed with soy-based inks. The winery also participates in reduce-reuse programs including on-site vineyard composting, water conservation and water recycling projects. Want to celebrate Parducci's carbon neutral status, I recommend the 2004 True Grit, a fiesty Petite Sirah-based summer red that goes great with grilled foods. It sells for $24.99.