Neutralizing Carbon Footprints

I went to see "An Inconvenient Truth" last night with my wife. Though I felt relatively educated on the topic of global warming prior to seeing the documentary, I learned a great deal. I had seen Gore speak at Stanford University back in November 2005 as part of the Net Impact conference, where he touched on a number of the points made in the film, but this was much more in depth than what I heard him say then.

Though my wife and I try to live by some of the suggestions made in the film - we own a hybrid car and walk when we can, among other things - we definitely can do a lot better. The documentary inspired us to sign up for a few blocks of renewable energy through NC GreenPower. Each block will help to reduce our annual carbon footprint by adding alternative energy into the N.C. power system and, thus, reducing:

• 2497 pounds of carbon dioxide (CO2)

• 7 pounds of sulfur dioxide (SO2)

• 3 pounds of nitrogen oxides (NOx)

• 972 pounds of coal required to produce the same energy

It's about time that we did this. It was hypocritical of me not to do it as I've known about NC GreenPower and others like it for quite some time. In fact, I had made a plea to a former employer to make a business contribution. When it wasn't working, I was able to speak directly with our CEO but he, too, rejected my request. My failure to convince them to make this contribution was disappointing for a number of reasons. Their first reason for rejecting the idea was that there was no idea that they could afford to pay for all of their current (at the time) energy needs with alternative energies. I had apparently not explained the program well to them, so I did a better job answering this concern by explaining that a business contribution could be as little as $2500 a year. Not only that, they'd get the recognition that many businesses often look for when 'doing the right thing' - NC GreenPower publishes the logo of every business who contributes to the program every place that they advertise.

When that wasn't good enough, the excuse - which I cannot swear to, but think this came directly from the mouth of the CEO, a CEO of the largest health insurer in the state of North Carolina - was that the company only contributes to causes that deal directly with health issues. I was prepared and told him that childhood asthma is big problem in North Carolina and that by putting more renewable energy in the power supply of North Carolina, there would be less pollution in the state to cause asthma, He still balked.

Anyway, I tried but failed. But, worse, I hadn't even made the contribution myself. Viewing "An Inconvenient Truth" helped to convince my wife and me that we needed to do it finally.

I highly recommend that everyone see the film. I hope among the many people it will inspire to make some easy changes to their lives, it will inspire business leaders and future business leaders who will try to bring some of the lessons learned to their business and try to not only change their work environment, but also the sourcing of the products that makes their business.

My only complaint about the documentary involves politics. I realize that it's based on a presentation that Gore has given worldwide for a number of years now. Had someone been trained to give the same presentation and been the one on camera, it would be even more powerful in my opinion. It is not meaning to be a slight to Gore, who I feel does a wonderful job presenting and explaining the facts. It's just that his presence (and some shots he takes on the current and past two Republican administrations) brings politics into the film. Of course, it was done to make a fair point, but it also serves to give an excuse to many who do not like Gore's politics to not see the film. As he does say a number of times in the film, global warming is not a political issue, it is a moral issue. It truly is.

Today's NY Times speaks more about the issue of reducing your personal carbon footprint. I spoke about NC Green Power above, but the article gives ideas of other organizations in this country that have similar programs. In some cases, your contribution goes to planting trees to offset your carbon emissions. You can read about it here. Also, some Presidio School of Management students started a similar program called Drive Neutral, which helps you calculate your early carbon emissions based on how much you drive. Contributions go to programs that help to offset those carbon emissions.