Brian Will is one of the first carbon neutral households in Ohio. He invited us to share at his place of employment, the Wexner Medical Center, on July 20, 2021. About 30 people attended the presentation.
At the beginning we asked, "How do you feel when you think about climate?" To which attendees answered:
And at the end of the presentation we asked how attendees felt:
The Sitka Spruce forests of Afognak are also home to a variety of wildlife like Kodiak brown bears, river otters, bald eagles and five different species of Pacific salmon. There may be as many as 1,000 bears on the 700 square mile island. There are about 200 methods by which project developers can generate verified carbon offsets. One benefit of forest related carbon projects is the biodiversity co-benefits. That is, by investing in these projects we're not just receiving their carbon benefits but also supporting multiple ecosystems. It's a high leverage investment.
Unfortunately, in the past some of the forest was clear-cut, leaving nothing, without any program to replant the trees.
Thankfully, this project is regrowing and protecting the forest and animal habitats with the goal to conserve this forest in perpetuity. By retaining carbon contained in the current forest biomass, sequestering additional carbon, and avoiding emissions from logging and transportation the Afognak Project will trap a whopping 1.5 million tons of CO2. This is equivalent to the emissions from 300,000 vehicles.
We invest our time researching reliable, high-quality projects, and in the future we hope to create a similar project right here in Indiana. The Afognak Forest Carbon Project is validated by the Rainforest Alliance and certified by VCS (Verified Carbon Standard),which is one of the highest ranked offset programs in the world.
This video shows what the ecosystem is like there. We're not affiliated with the company that produced this video, but we wanted to include it here to show Afognak's natural beauty:
If you’d like to learn more about the project, check out the project description, and contact us with your questions.
This post was written by Parker Angelos, and Mallory Cullen found the images.
Full story: Q&A Helping Indiana become carbon neutral
Full story: New nonprofit helps Hoosiers go carbon neutral
Full article: The New Yorker
"My name is Susan Fox, and my husband’s name is Bill. We’ve been married for over twenty years and live in Milford Ohio. I’m retired now, but I am a landscape architect by trade.
What resonated with me about Carbon Neutral Ohio? Well, it just seems like the bare minimum we need to do. In fact, not only do we need to be carbon neutral… we also need to be carbon negative and pull more of it out of the air than we’re putting in.
To me, there aren't one or two big answers to the climate crisis. There are 500 little things. Becoming carbon neutral is definitely one of those things. And those who have the ability to do more definitely need to do more.
We have this beautiful planet. It is amazingly restorative -- it can fix itself in a lot of ways -- but I also realize it doesn’t care about us. So if we screw things up badly enough it’s not going away. It’ll just be very unpleasant for the humans and animals that remain. And I love human life! I love cities by the water, on the beaches… I don’t want to see that go away.
There are several things I like about Carbon Neutral Ohio’s strategy:
So my husband and I are proud to be carbon neutral -- and one of the first in Ohio!"
Carbon Neutral Ohio (CNO) is a nonprofit social enterprise startup. This means we generate most of our support by selling carbon offsets as a fundraiser. Similar to how Goodwill resells clothing. We’re demonstrating a self-financing, inclusive, and scalable mass movement. We help households clean up their carbon footprints and shift culture so that it’s normal to be carbon neutral.
About 40% of subscription revenue goes to educate more households. The other 60% goes to purchase verified, wholesale, negative emissions. So far, we’ve invested in forest protection, landfill methane capture, and nitrous oxide abatement. There are over 200 project types, however, including feeding cows garlic to reduce methane and shifting to regenerative farming practices to capture carbon in the soil.
We select projects based on our current knowledge of what is most effective. For example, The Oxford Offsetting Principles points out that not all tons are created equally. Right now, it’s good to invest in projects that avoid emissions (e.g. avoided deforestation). Over time, however, we need to shift to projects that remove emissions. First with short-lived storage (e.g. soil carbon) and then with long-lived storage (e.g. carbon mineralization).
See this record of all carbon offset deposits and purchases.
Probably not. Electricity is just one part of your total carbon footprint. Below is am example of where household carbon emissions come from:
Yes, the process is the same as with people who live in households. You just probably won't be able to put up a yard sign. You can measure your footprint here.