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Carbon Neutral
Carbon Neutral is a term used to
describe the neutralizing of greenhouse
gas (GHG) emissions associated with a
given activity or good by offsetting the
emissions through the purchase and
retirement of an equivalent amount of
GHG emission reductions. A typical
example is when an individual or company
purchases coolAction.com GHG emission
Reductions to offset its consumption of
hydrocarbon fuels; such as gasoline,
heating fuel, or even hydrocarbon based
electricity.
GHG Emission Reductions are the product
of a formalized quantification of a GHG
emission reduction that occurs from the
use of an improved technology or
practice. GHG Emission Reductions are
normally quantified as tonnes of CO2
equivalent. Carbon Neutral is therefore
achieved when a tonne of CO2 equivalent
GHG emissions is offset through the
purchase and retirement of a single
tonne of GHG Emission Reductions.
Sources of GHG Emission Reductions are
such things as; the use of renewable
electric generation technology to
displace the use of hydrocarbon fuelled
generation, the capture and destruction
of methane gas from a landfill site, the
use of higher efficiency technology that
reduces the consumption of hydrocarbon
based energy, and the use of no-till
agricultural practices that result in
higher levels of carbon sequestration in
the soil. It is important that the
quantification of GHG Emission
Reductions from such sources has been
done in conformance with accepted
standards and methods. All
coolAction.com GHG Emission Reductions
from its emission reduction projects
follow such standards. For transparency
to its purchasers coolAction.com's
Project Registry catalogues its
emission reduction projects and the
quantification documentation used to
create the GHG Emission Reductions from
each project. The
Certificate Registry documents the
retirement of coolAction.com GHG
Emission Reductions on behalf of its
customers.
Here are some typical examples of how
you might want to use coolAction.com to
become Carbon Neutral.
Individual
John has a new job in a nearby town,
public transportation isn't feasible and
he has been unable to find a car pool so
he must drive each day. He figures this
is going to be about 18,000 miles per
year and he is concerned about the GHG
emissions and global warming impact of
all this new driving. He decides to make
this driving carbon neutral and using
coolaction.com's
GHG Calculator he finds he can do so
for each year by purchasing 8 tonnes of
coolAction.com GHG Emission Reductions.
When he's done so, John get a
Certificate of recognition from
coolAction.com and his purchase is
recorded on the coolAction.com
Certificate Registry. Since John's
certificate identifies the
coolAction.com emission reduction
project that is the source of his GHG
Emission Reductions he can find
information about the project and the
GHG Emission Reduction quantification
methodology on the coolAction.com
Project Registry.
Family
The Marzini family has renovated their
home and have included a large number of
energy efficiency improvements, but they
are concerned about global warming and
decide to use coolAction.com to make
their home's energy consumption carbon
neutral. Using GHG Calculator they find
the annual CO2 emissions that result
from their home's energy consumption is
about 12 tonnes. After purchasing
offsetting GHG Emission Reductions
through coolAction.com, they receive
their Certificate of Recognition and are
able to obtain more information about
their purchase on coolAction.com's
Certificate Registry and
Project Registry.
Business
Busy Retail is a fairly new company that
opened eighteen stores in the last 5
years. Their target customers are
environmentally minded consumers that
take the environmental impact of their
purchases seriously. Busy Retail has
ensured that its stores are energy
efficient and that environmental
considerations are part of their product
specifications, but it now wants to make
both its stores and most of the products
it offers carbon neutral. Unsure how to
do this, Busy contacts coolAction.com
for advice. After being contacted
coolAction.com agrees at no charge to
develop a brief Carbon Neutral
Implementation Plan for Busy Retail.
When the Plan is agreed to coolAction
sets about estimating the CO2 emissions
attributable to the store operations and
most of Busy's products. For the
products the emission estimates include
those related manufacturing and material
inputs, shipping and distribution. When
completed it is estimated that Busy will
need 32,500 tonnes of coolAction GHG
Emission Reduction per year to achieve
its Carbon Neutral goal at current
operating levels. With the purchase Busy
receives a coolAction.com Certificate of
recognition for each of its stores and
head office. Because of the size of the
purchase coolAction.com is able to
include the cost of carrying out the
Implementation Plan as well as giving
Busy a choice of the emission reduction
project that will be the source of the
coolAction.com GHG Emission Reductions.
In addition, coolAction is able to
provide product tags to Busy that can be
attached to its products to identify
them as carbon neutral and to inform
customers that they can confirm this
information by accessing the
coolAction.com's
Certificate Registry and
Project Registry.
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