Carbon Offsetting
Carbon offsetting what is it and how do you do it? I have for many years been aware of my ‘carbon footprint’. Living in a house with several vehicles as well as my motorcycles makes you aware of the carbon emissions that you generate as you travel around. We could not manage without our vehicles living where we do. But I do my bit my car has less than a 1000cc’s and I manage to get over seventy miles to the gallon.
So when I decided to set up Mid Wales Tours which, involved using yet another carbon producing vehicle. I decided that it was time to look around to see if I could offset the extra carbon I was going to produce running the business.
What is Carbon Offsetting?
Good question. When I began looking I had no idea. I had seen headlines about countries offsetting or selling their carbon quotas etc. Research was required. The internet can be a wonderful thing and has all the answers if you know where to look.
I soon found out that you need to know how much carbon you are producing in order to offset it. How do you do that?. Well there are various ways. With vehicles most of the work has already been done for you. Look up the vehicle you have and the amount of carbon produced per mile etc has already been calculated. You then have to work out your annual mileage and you have your total carbon production That does not take into consideration the amount of carbon used in production and transport to you, but you will have a rough idea anyway.
So how do you offset your carbon?
I wanted to try and find a company who dealt with offsetting carbon emissions caused by motorcycles, because that was the vehicle I was using. Would you believe I found such a company. http://motorcycleoffsetters. run by motorcycle riders and committed environmentalists.
They use the money raised to fund projects around the world that drawdown carbon emission’s. One of Motorcycle Offsetters’ portfolio projects is the Afognak Forest Carbon Project. It is the result of more than a decade of dedicated efforts to permanently preserve a truly special ecosystem. The old-growth trees sequester millions of tons of carbon dioxide, making this pristine ecosystem increasingly beneficial for the environment.
I did my research first to make sure that the money raised did in fact go to the projects listed and not into someone’s pocket, and then completed the application.
it was a simple thing to do, I inputted the vehicle I was using from a drop down list, worked out my annual mileage and the system calculated the rest.
I was then given a quote and asked to pay an amount of money that would then be invested in the projects motorcycle offsetters support.
That was that. I had offset my carbon emissions, not only that Mid wales Tours became the first motorcycle company in the world to offset their carbon emissions.
Carbon Offsetting