carbon offset

Will Travelers Buy Carbon Credits At The Airport?

Filed under: Wings

You are rushing through the airport trying to make your flight. You've paid extra to check your bags, you'll pay extra for a meal and you're contemplating buying a book for the flight when you see it, the carbon credits kiosk. Will you buy a little guilt free flying? The San Francisco Chronicle reports that travelers flying out of San Francisco International Airport will soon have that option, being able to buy credits at from carbon offset company, 3 Degrees at a kiosk resembling the self-service check-in stations used by airlines. The computer would calculate the carbon footprint based on your flight and print out a total which can be paid immediately. Prices could run anywhere from under $5 for a short flight to over $35 for an international one. The program at the San Francisco International Airport calls for kiosks will be placed throughout the airport. 3Degrees will get 30 percent of each purchase, with the rest going to carbon-reduction projects.

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Tags: 3 degrees, 3Degrees, carbon credits, carbon offset, CarbonCredits, CarbonOffset, san francisco, SanFrancisco, sfo

Yacht Carbon Offset Assuages Green Guilt

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Yachts & Sailing, Green

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]

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Tags: carbon credits, carbon offset, yachts

Virgin Atlantic Offers Onboard Offsets

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wings, Green

Virgin Atlantic has become the first airline that lets you order up your carbon offsets while you are actually in flight. The airline has partnered with myclimate to offer the offsets which are available onboard and online. The offsets will benefit projects in India and Indonesia.Virgin Atlantic has committed to only Gold Standard projects which are endorsed by 49 Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) worldwide including many environmental groups. The Gold Standard credits are independently validated and only support renewable energy or energy efficiency technologies (no tree planting or gas flaring).

Virgin Atlantic has also calculated exactly how much carbon is produced for each passenger by taking into account the different weights of equipment and seats in each class of travel. Upper Class passengers pay more than Premium economy and Economy passengers because their seats and entertainment monitors are significantly heavier.

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Tags: carbon offset, expire-images:2008-11-8, green, planes, virgin atlantic, VirginAtlantic

NetJets Europe Makes Carbon Neutral Flying Mandatory

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wings, Green

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.

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Tags: carbon neutral, carbon offset, CarbonNeutral, ecosecurities, netjets, private jets

A New Visa Card For Spending Green

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Services

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.

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Tags: carbon credits, carbon neutral, carbon offset, credit card, visa

Cerulean Jet Plans To Neutralize Carbon Emissions

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wings

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.

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Tags: carbon neutral, carbon offset, cerulean, charter, green, jet