One of our goals is to neutralize the greenhouse gases emitted as a direct result of having this wedding. For example, those that choose to drive from Vancouver to Bradner will be emitting a certain amount of CO2 for the purpose of arriving at our wedding and getting back home in the evening. It is our intention to neutralize all of this CO2 by way of “offsetting”.
Here's how it works: if you add polluting emissions to the atmosphere, you can effectively subtract them by purchasing 'carbon offsets'. Carbon offsets are simply credits for emission reductions achieved by projects elsewhere, such as wind farms, solar installations, or energy efficiency projects. By purchasing these credits, you can apply them to your own emissions and reduce your net climate impact (www.davidsuzuki.org).
Our plan is to create a method by which we can calculate the CO2 emitted as a result of our wedding and then apply credits to an offset project of our choice.
Items to be calculated will include (not limited to):
- Car emissions
- Air travel emissions - Guests are asked to offset their own emissions... see below.
- BBQ and Gas Cooking Emissions
- Flatulence (Just kidding)
http://www.climatefriendly.com/ is the website we would like our guests to use for the “offsetting” of their return flights to Vancouver.
This website is Australian, but holds a gold standard in this industry (see gold standard info at http://www.davidsuzuki.org/Climate_Change/What_You_Can_Do/carbon_offsets.asp
If you would like to use a slightly less expensive source (also with less accreditation) you can use www.offsetters.ca, a Canadian company
If you would like to view a report on different carbon offset companies, click on this link:
http://www.tufts.edu/tie/tci/carbonoffsets/
“It's more important to buy high quality offsets than to buy offsets from any one country. Greenhouse gases know no boundary, so offset projects have the same effect regardless of where they are implemented. (That is, offset projects have the same climate effect. People may want to support Canadian companies to support our economy, but, again, it's more important to support quality projects”.
- Brian Yourish, Administrator
Climate Change Program
David Suzuki Foundation
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