AEA offsets 101% of our operation’s carbon footprint- and you can, too.

There are many ways to offset your carbon footprint. Some ways are very inexpensive, and arguably less effective, such as planting trees. Although planting trees, is useful, it is not easy to ensure that the trees are actually planted or live to their full potential to achieve their goals. 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 welcome suggestions.

  2. TAKE IT OUT OF THE ATMOSPHERE, LITERALLY- this is the expensive part. We pay Climeworks roughly $1/ kilo (50 cents / 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. Below, we will show you how we came up with the amount we remove and other ways we offset what we don’t remove.

Carbon Calculations

First we need to find a way to calculate the carbon that we use as a company.

  1. Office Space

  2. Utilities: Electricity, Gas, Water, Internet, Phone

  3. Travel: to and from work

  4. Travel: plane. train, automobile for conferences, inspections, meetings, annual retreats

  5. Website usage

  6. Office supplies (printers, computers, screens, paper, etc)

  7. Marketing supples (printing, t-shirts, schwag)

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Calculators:

Next, we need to find calculators that will actually help us calculate our carbon footprint:

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  3. lkjsfksfh (website)

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Here are our calculations:

  • Office Space: We all work from home, and always have, so we have only home office space

  • Utilities: We calculated utilities as a percentage of our home expenses for each of us. For example, if there are 4 of us at home, and one of us works 20 hours per week for AEA, we divided the gas bill by 4 people, then divided that quarter by 1/3 based on an 8-hour day for work, and then divided it by another half to equal a 4-hour work day.

    • Gas

    • Electricity

    • Water

    • Garbage

    • Internet

    • Phone

  • Travel to and from work: Since we all work at home, this is null.

  • Travel for work: When travel returns, we will calculate travel by air, car, train, etc.

  • Website usage:

  • Office supplies:

  • Marketing supples: