GoGreenEtc donates 10% of profits to environmental charities, and we are partnering up with some great organizations as part of this mission. One of our partners is CarbonFund.org, which is one of the world’s leaders in “carbon offsets.” We think carbon offsets are a great way to encourage environmental activism, and feel it is important for our customers to understand how they work. Last year, I made a video explaining carbon offsets, which can be seen below.

The best way to help curb climate change is to try to cut back on our carbon emissions as much as possible. Unfortunately, our society makes it pretty difficult to live without electricity or fossil fuel-powered transportation. The function of carbon offsets is to…well, offset the carbon that you do produce.

There are two basic ways to do this. Since trees absorb carbon, you can plant trees in order to take carbon out of the atmosphere. Alternatively, you can invest in projects that produce clean energy. By making more clean energy available, you are reducing the amount of “dirty” energy that needs to be produced, thereby offsetting your own impact. CarbonFund is involved in both of these options, and to date, they have offset over 4 billion pounds of CO2!