AEA will offset 101% of our operation’s carbon footprint- and you can, too.
You’ve probably seen all sorts of claims that companies are going carbon neutral, but you haven’t seen proof. And you’ve heard there are many ways to offset your carbon footprint, but you aren’t sure if they are effective or legitimate. We as a company, and more specifically, I as the owner, have been there as well. And we are still learning, no doubt, but I have also discovered a few things that we as a company want to share with you. We will not only prove that we are carbon negative (still getting there) but we will give you options to get there yourselves.
Some strategies are very inexpensive, and arguably less effective, such as planting trees. This may sound controversial, so let me elaborate. Although planting trees is useful, it is not easy to ensure that the trees are actually planted or, more importantly, live to realize their full potential. Plus, if we rely on tree planting alone, we will not meet 2030 or 2050 goals. Thus, to offset AEA operations, we follow the 2-fold path:
1. REDUCE, REUSE & RECYCLE- first we try to limit the amount of carbon we as a company and as individuals put into the air. We are developing a guide for our team members to help to accomplish these three simple tasks on a daily basis at work and at home- which are the same thing, coincidentally. And also on our programs. We will share this document here when we have finished, and we welcome suggestions.
In the meantime, here are some of the things we do that may not be so obvious:
Make your home and office energy efficient (home inefficiency accounts for 40% of greenhouse emissions in the US) with grants or your own hands; subscribe climate-friendly utility plans if you can afford to; and shop locally when possible.
Did you know that you help keep carbon in the ground by buying used clothes and other used items; printing double-sided and using the back of used paper for scratch paper; eating vegan or more vegetarian meals than usual (animal agriculture worldwide uses about the same amount of carbon as the global airlines); making your next car electric; hosting your website(s) on carbon friendlier hosting services (the internet accounts for the same as global air traffic); and choosing to search and shop on websites or with the ever-growing number of companies that have a social or carbon mission?
Traveling by air? Fly closer to home, stay away longer, take direct flights, take less flights, take one luggage, and fly in coach. You may also want to fill half your luggage with donations that can benefit a local organization where you are going, and then fill that luggage space with locally made products on your return home.
Thinking of getting a pet or having kids? Don’t do it! Just kidding! We aren’t going to give up living, and enjoying the beauty of the world we want to keep without those that make it all worth it. And we can actually have our children, and our pets, and still save our air. But we do need to make other sacrifices. And some of those are financial.
2. TAKE IT OUT OF THE ATMOSPHERE, LITERALLY- this is the expensive part. We pay Climeworks roughly 1 Euro per kilo (60 cents per pound) to physically remove carbon from the skies. This is the most expensive, but also the most effective, way to remove carbon from the atmosphere. We will get a report from Climeworks at the end of the year.
There are other useful ways to remove carbon from our air, or to avoid putting it in the air in the first place, though, and we encourage the use of many techniques, which we will elaborate on in other pages in this section.
BUT FIRST, we need to calculate our carbon footprint. Visit our Carbon Calculations page, where we show you how we came up with the amount we remove and other ways we offset what we don’t remove.
