Re-News-Ables - 5/16/08

EcoSystem Marketplace releases its "State of the Voluntary Carbon Markets." This is the best guide out there to overall market trends and information - so make sure to study it as hard as I have!

Merrill Lynch is learning how to take advantage of the carbon offset growing market. The financial powerhouse is launching its Green and Gold initiative.

The debate over carbon offsets gets political as McCain releases a counter-proposal to Lieberman-Warner. Carbonfund.org is staying out of it, for now.

Efficient wood stoves are approved as eligible carbon offset projects. My guess is they won't be in our project portfolio anytime soon.

New York Design Company Hosts CarbonFree Event

In the world of Touch NY, necklaces are made from recycled soda can tabs, hugging trees is an artistic statement, and the idea of sustainability rises to the status of "social and aesthetic force." Our CarbonFree Business Partner, Studio Mousetrap, is offsetting the event on behalf of Touch.

Here's the announcement for their upcoming event in NYC, May 18-20, from Touch's Web site:

With sustainability gaining unprecedented traction with the new social vocabulary, TOUCH NEW YORK aims to place the viewer firmly inside the context of the movement by not only showing works comprised of recycled material, but surrounding him or her with it as well to create a complete experience. In doing so, the exhibition hopes to explore the potential and practicality of sustainability in the design world as both a social and aesthetic force.

It's Never Too Early To Be a Climate Activist

In March I reported on high school students who raised funds to donate to Carbonfund.org through a bake sale. Well, Michael just brought a story to my attention that proves activism can start even earlier than that.

The story begins with Evan Slater, Editor of Surfing Magazine, which joined the CarbonFree™ Surfing program last summer. He's also the rightly proud father of two cute little girls, Peyton, a second grader, and Zoe, who's in kindergarten.

Last winter, these forward-thinking girls started their own "Bottle Project" at their elementary school in Carlsbad, CA. The project's goal was to encourage the entire school to recycle their plastic bottles for a semester. Slater says:

During Christmas break, we lugged more than a dozen massive trashbags full of plastic bottles to the local recycling center. The girls collected just over 100 bucks, we matched it, and they wanted to put that money back in the ground by planting trees, so they donated to Carbonfund.org. The school got so behind it, they had a big assembly for them and they talked about the project and the results.

As a joke, my older daughter's teacher decided to pour a can of plastic bottles on their heads.

Congrats and thanks to Peyton and Zoe, from all of us at Carbonfund.org!

A New Type of Carbon Offset: Efficient Wood Stoves

Treehugger reports that ClimateCare, one of our competitors over in the U.K., has been able to get carbon offsets from a new type of efficient wood stove used in rural third-world communities approved under the international Gold Standard.

The stove helps cut indoor pollution by 70 percent and wood fuel use by 60 percent. That's huge, particularly considering how much deforestation in the developing world is harming the environment.

Watch the video for more info.

"Buy Green, Be Green" Thanks to Ritz Cameras, Nikon, and Carbonfund.org

When I think of cameras I don't necessarily think "green"-- and that's part of the brilliance of Ritz Cameras' "Buy Green, Be Green" partnership with Carbonfund.org, which has been in full swing for a couple weeks. The details of the promotion are thus:

Each time a customer purchases a special edition ECO-Green color Nikon COOLPIX S52 camera, Ritz Camera will make a donation to Carbonfund.org to help prevent nearly two tons of carbon dioxide from harming the Earth. This donation will also make the customer carbon neutral for one month by offsetting his or her carbon footprint.

The true significance for me is that by looking beyond the usual climate suspects like travel and power, Ritz and Nikon are thinking outside the box. Because the unfortunate truth is that plenty of other human activities-- even taking and developing photos-- have a carbon impact.