The move toward encouraging users of private jets to pay for carbon offsets has for the most part been optional with a strong dose of guilt. Now The Guardian reports that NetJets Europe has upped the ante by making carbon offsetting compulsory for its customers. The company is set to announce that all the new customers will have the cost of offsets added to their bills, adding around 4,000 euros to the bill for each NetJets customer. Existing customers will be signed up for the added cost when they renew their contracts. The chairman of NetJets Europe was quoted as saying in the article that he does not believe the added cost will damage sales and that the customers have driven this move. NetJets will invest in the carbon offset projects of EcoSecurities.Posts with tag carbon neutral
NetJets Europe Makes Carbon Neutral Flying Mandatory
The move toward encouraging users of private jets to pay for carbon offsets has for the most part been optional with a strong dose of guilt. Now The Guardian reports that NetJets Europe has upped the ante by making carbon offsetting compulsory for its customers. The company is set to announce that all the new customers will have the cost of offsets added to their bills, adding around 4,000 euros to the bill for each NetJets customer. Existing customers will be signed up for the added cost when they renew their contracts. The chairman of NetJets Europe was quoted as saying in the article that he does not believe the added cost will damage sales and that the customers have driven this move. NetJets will invest in the carbon offset projects of EcoSecurities.Chilean Winery Goes Carbon Neutral
The drive to go carbon neutral has hit wineries outside the United States. Decanter reports that the Chilean winery Cono Sur has announced a carbon offsetting project and an aid package for indigenous people. The Cono Sur and Isla Negra wines will bear the CarbonNeutral trademark. The winery has chosen The CarbonNeutral Company to help them offset carbon emissions created by sending the wines to market. As the article in Decanter points out, it's partly a strategic move, carbon neutral products are becoming more important to consumers around the globe. Other ways to drink carbon neutral include:
Scotland's plans for a carbon neutral distillery
Parducci winery goes carbon neutral
Plans For A Carbon-Neutral Distillery
Everyone is trying to go carbon neutral lately. Up next, plans for Scotland's first carbon-neutral distillery. Euan Shand, managing director of Duncan Taylor & Co, a Highlands-based whisky bottling group plans to spend up to £3.5m on a distillery, visitor center, offices, warehousing and bottling complex in Huntly near Aberdeen to produce single malt and grain whisky, vodka and gin without putting an added drain on the environment. The plant will be powered by burning woodchips and will operate as a separate venture to Duncan Taylor & Co with private financing. An old creamery will house the distillery building. Eventually the plant will produce around 750,000 liters of alcohol per year. It will be home to single-malt copper pot stills, a four-column neutral grain plant and an experimental still. Construction could be complete by next summer and blended whisky, gin and vodka will be made while the distillery's first batch of single malt whisky ages for a potential reveal in 2018.Masdar, Plans For A Carbon-Neutral City
The science-fiction-style picture above depicts what British architecture firm Foster + Partners sees as the future of urban living. The walled city of Masdar in Abu Dhabi will be the world's first zero-carbon and zero-waste city in the world. This car-free zone is being driven by Abu Dhabi's Future Energy Company and will be home to the company's headquarters and a new university. The project was unveiled at the Cityscape conference in Abu Dhabi. The land around the city will be home to wind and photovoltaic farms as well as research fields and plantations so that the city is completely self-sustaining. The development is set to open in late 2009.
[via Building]
A New Visa Card For Spending Green
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.Cerulean Jet Plans To Neutralize Carbon Emissions
Another jet company has made a move to carbon neutrality following Silverjet's lead. Cerulean Jet, a private air charter service has announced that they are taking steps to neutralize the carbon emissions for all chartered flights. The company will be purchasing carbon offsets from Green Mountain Energy Company's eMission Solutions division to offset the carbon footprint caused from carbon dioxide emission from flights. Cerulean will purchase carbon offsets from Green Mountain for 100 percent of its entire fleet's flights for one year. Through their eMissions division Green Mountain works with reforestation as well as solar and wind power projects. Cerulean offers four different card-based charter services offering on demand service with no membership fee or membership services with fees that offer a reduction in the cost of flights.
Silverjet Promises Carbon Neutral Flight
Our friends over at Helium Report got me thinking about carbon neutral flight recently and so I found the news that SIlverjet promises to be the first carbon netural airline particularly interesting. What does it mean to be carbon neutral? Basically it means that all of the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions used are offset. Silverjet includes within ticket prices a mandatory carbon offset contribution. I first heard of Silverjet last April and they are launching their first trans-Atlantic flight on January 25. Silverjet, which specializes in the London to New York hop, offers a private terminal experience that lets you arrive for your flight 30 minutes before departure. The flights also come with flat bed seats and there is also a women's only toilet. Prices start at $1,798.
