We drove over 1300 miles (2200 kilometers) during our vacation. The car we rented is rated at 31 mpg highway, and most of our driving was highway, so I used 30 mpg to estimate the total gallons of gas used. (We didn't keep the gas receipts). After doing the various conversions, I determined that we used about 44.5 gallons of gas, releasing about 890 pounds of carbon (CO2) as a result of our driving.

What can we do about that? Not travel? That's not likely. What about buying "carbon offsets" ? While part of me thinks that anything that sounds too good to be true must in fact be a scam, I have read a lot of compelling articles about it. The link above will take you to a salon.com article from 2006 about offsets. While the best choice is to avoid the carbon emissions in the first place, at least offsets are a way to mitigate for the emissions that an individual makes - either by choice or necessity. In other words, it is better than doing nothing.

I chose to offset our impacts through a company called NativeEnergy. They give you the choice of actually directing your dollars to specific on-the-ground alternative energy projects. I chose a blend of methane and wind energy projects. For $84 we made an investment that will help create clean energy that will offset not only the carbon released while driving on vacation, but also the carbon released by our two cars over the course of a year. Using their calculator, we came up with about 7 tons of CO2 from our annual driving habits. By off-setting a year of our car-related carbon, they'll send us a "CoolDriver" bumper sticker so we can help spread the word!

One of the things I liked about the company is that they invest these dollars in projects that would probably not happen without their investment. For instance, wind farms at Indian Reservations or on Family Farms. There is a social justice angle that I like - it feels like a bonus.

 
From their website: "With NativeEnergy, you can help finance and build new clean and renewable energy projects that help Native Americans and Alaska Natives create sustainable economic benefits, and that help America’s family farmers compete with agribusiness.  These projects will displace electricity from fossil fuels and reduce other greenhouse gas emissions on your behalf, making up for the CO₂ emissions you can’t avoid."

Another reason I chose NativeEnergy is that the Land Trust Alliance chose them to offset the CO2 impacts of their annual Rally conference that will take place in Denver this fall. (LTA is a national land conservation support organization that has helped small, local organizations like the one I work for preserve millions of acres across the US over the past 20 years). I have a great deal of respect for LTA, and am willing to trust that they did their homework before selecting NativeEnergy. Also, as a non-profit, I know that they are very careful to use their dollars wisely - not just to make a statement at any cost, but to use their funds to have a measurable impact.

Our first $84 investment in alternative energy. Some day I'll do enough research to perhaps buy stock in an actual company directly, but for the time being, this solution feels pretty good!