Make Your Summer Traveling 'Greener'

Are you looking for a way to make your Summer Vacation a bit 'greener'? 'Going green' doesn't mean you have to stay at home. You just need to find a greener way to travel. You can reduce your carbon footprint (the amount of carbon dioxide & other greenhouse gases that your daily activities emit) by purchasing carbon offsets and choosing to use low-carbon transportation both during the trip and at your final destination.

By buying carbon offsets, You can shrink your footprint significantly.
Native Energy offers business specific types of offsets which include offsets for travel companies, events and business travel. With Native Energy you can support specific projects, such as the Wanner Family Dairy Farm Methane Project. Native Energy also offers renewable energy credits, which are much like buying green power from your utility company. You can choose from either 100% wind power, 100% methane power or 50% wind/50% methane. It would cost $24 to offset a flight from JFK to LAX. Carbonfund prides itself on offering the lowest prices, sells offsets to support projects in renewable energy, and energy efficiency & reforestation. These offsets sell for $5.50 per ton. Offsets for the that same flight would cost $4.92. These are just 2 of the more than 50 carbon offset retailers in today's growing market. So with so many choices, how do you know if one is better than the other? A good carbon offset should be verified or certified by a third party, meaning that they comply with the Gold Standard, the Voluntary Carbon Standard 2007 or the standards set by Green-e Climate.

The offsets sold by Carbonfund and Native Energy are both verified by The Gold Standard and VCS 2007. In the meantime, Green-e Climate in February became the first U.S. certifier of consumer carbon offsets. To this day, Green-e Climate has only certified carbon offsets from 4 retailers: 3Degrees, Bonneville Environmental Foundation, Community Energy & Renewable Choice.

This summer, let's all choose to ease our guilt that is caused by our travels by buying carbon offsets. Let's offset the greenhouse gas emissions by financing projects that add clean energy to the power grid and reduce the overall demand for fossil fuels!


"Green travel is more than where we go and what we do; it's how we travel. If we journey with a respect for Earth's resources and inhabitants, we contribute to a world which supports healthy growth, both in nature and in human relationships."
- Visit Earth Routes for some WONDERFUL reservations & resources for green travel!