Saturday, April 24, 2010

Carbon neutrality is good!

There's this really cool initiative going on that I first discovered over at Pages. In a nutshell, it's supposed to help the planet by reducing your carbon footprint. Here's more information directly from the website.

What is it?
“My blog is carbon neutral” is an initiative, originally started in Germany by the “Make it Green” programme, that has the goal to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. We plant a tree for your blog and thereby neutralise your blog’s carbon footprint for the next 50 years! Everyone can make a small contribution to the environment.


How does it work?
According to a study by Alexander Wissner-Gross, PhD, physicist at Harvard University and environmental activist, an average website causes about 0.02g (0,0008oz.) of carbon dioxide for each visit. Assuming an average blog gets 15,000 visits a month, it has yearly carbon dioxide emissions of 3,6kg (8lb.). This can mainly be tracked back to the immense energy usage from (mainframe) computers, servers, and their cooling systems.

The atmosphere can be relieved by an average of 5kg (11lb.) carbon dioxide every year by planting one tree. An average blog causes 3.6kg (8lb.) of carbon dioxide emissions. Consequently, a tree neutralises the carbon dioxide emissions of a blog. Since a tree lives for an average of 50 years, carbon dioxide emissions of your blog can be completely neutralised for this time period.

How do I participate?
Click here to visit the official website and get involed! Basically, you need to write a post like this explaining the initiative, post an icon on your blog, and email them a link to your post. It's really easy - you've got nothing to lose.

4 comments:

Rebecca Chapman said...

Good on you for taking such a creative step to help reduce global warming. What a great idea

Emidy @ Une Parole said...

Thank you, Becky! :D

Beth said...

What a great idea!

Darlyn said...

Wow..indeed a nice things to do...Great, Emidy!