Local Action for a Sustainable Tomorrow

CARBON OFFSETS - Ann S.

A long web search of sites that offer carbon offsets turned up dozens of them, but many did not list the projects that your “purchase” funded, and of those who did, most listed projects outside the U.S., or the projects seemed less than desirable (i.e. planting trees or just more research). If you wish to have a look, I recommend the following sites:

1) For lots of general information: www.davidsuzuki.org
This site also recommends “gold standard” organizations, all of which are European or Canadian, but seem to be doing good work.

2) BEF (Bonneville Environmental Foundation) My favorite because it is right here in the Pacific Northwest: www.greentagsusa.org You can buy “green tags” to offset your carbon footprint and they use the money for renewable energy projects here in the U.S.

3) Solar Electric Light Fund: www.self.org This one uses your purchase to replace diesel, coal etc. power sources with solar. They install almost 1000 solar PV systems per year in small villages in developing nations.