Summary of Reading about Carbon Credits

Relevant websites:

• Environmental Defense has a list of recommended offset sellers. They are described in more detail here and include:
  • AtmosClear Climate Club which is a landfill gas capture project in Illinois, which generates power from burning the methane.
  • Carbonfund.org which partners with dairy farms in SoCal. Manure is collected and processed in an anearobic digester. The recovered gas generates electricity to operate a reverse osmosis groundwater clean-up system.
  • DrivingGreen which partners with hog farms in Mexico (according to Environmental Defense) to collect manure, process it in an anaerobic digester, and destroy the methane by flaring to generate electricity. Their website lists projects exclusively in the U.S.
  • e-Blue Horizons which captures methane from landfills in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Energy generated from combustion of the methane is used to treat wastewater runoff from the landfill.
  • Natsource LLC - DuPont - BlueSource partners with companies to reduce their global warming emissions. The companies include DuPont and reducing emissions of HFC-23, a byproduct of Freon-22; International Paper which replaced boilers with more efficient natural gas turbines; and two BlueSource projects that capture carbon dioxide from natural gas plants and inject them to be stored in maturing oil wells in Texas and Wyoming.
• Environmental Resources Trust, Inc. certifies some carbon credit sellers.
• My guidebook for Beijing listed the following:
  • www.climatefriendly.com
  • www.climatecare.co.uk
  • www.futureforests.com
• I found a table of carbon offset companies here: http://www.ecobusinesslinks.com/carbon_offset_wind_credits_carbon_reduction.htm
• "The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that a two–person household generates carbon dioxide-equivalent emissions of approximately 30 tons per year." from e-BlueHorizons.

Tons of carbon emitted due to a round-trip flight between Dallas and Los Angeles, according to various calculators:

site	carbon amount
www.climatefriendly.com	1.2 tons (fly Dallas-LA round-trip) wedding: 16 tons, assuming 80 person event with a mix of people flying and driving.
www.climatecare.co.uk	site down
www.carbonneutral.com	0.6 tons (fly Dallas-LA round-trip)
www.futureforests.com aka www.drivinggreen.com	4400 pounds (2.2 short tons) (fly Dallas-LA round-trip) wedding, 100 people flying 1-4 hours, 178200 pounds (81 short tons)

US companies only:

Carbon Offset Provider	Price (US$/Metric ton CO2)	Non-profit	Projects Types	Project Choice	Offset Types	Product Certification/ Verification	Summary
AtmosClear Climate Club US	$3.20 - $5.00	No	Methane	No	Car, Home	Environmental Resources Trust	Buys and resells carbon credits from a landfill that burns methane and uses it to generate power.
Carbonfund.org US	$5.00	Yes	Renewables, Efficiency, Reforestation	Yes	Home, Car, Air, Events, Business	Green-e, Chicago Climate Exchange, Environmental Resources Trust
e-BlueHorizons US	$5.00	No	Renewables,  Reforestation	No	Home, Car, Air	Chicago Climate Exchange, Environmental Resources Trust
DrivingGreen US	$8.00	?	Methane capture on hog farms	No	SES, Inc.	Yes
NatSource US	$4.00	No	Partner with companies	Yes		Yes
DriveNeutral.org US	$6.93 & up	Yes	Efficiency	No	Car	Chicago Climate Exchange
Terrapass US	$7.35c - 11.00	No	Renewables, Efficiency	No	Car, Air, Events, Business	Green-e, Chicago Climate Exchange, Center for Resource Solutions
Native Energy US	$13.20	No	Renewables	Yes	Home, Car, Air, Events, Business	Green-e
Sustainable travel International US, Switzerland	$18.00	Yes	Renewables	No	Air, Car, Home, Hotel	See Myclimate
Bonneville Environmental Foundation US	$29.00	Yes	Renewables	No	Home, Air, Business, Event	Green-e
Solar Electric Light Fund US	$10.00	Yes	Renewables	No	External Calculators	n/a

Seth recommended the following two resources to look at financial evaluations of non-profits:

• give.org
• charitynavigator.org