Carbon footprint standards are starting to emerge in the UK.  Some new labels developed by the Carbon Trust and the Government Department of Environment  feature the carbon footprint estimation for endorsed products.  The article by Climate Change Corpsuggests that consumers favor products with a clear statement of carbon dioxide emissions.

A study conducted by Populus Research for Walker’s Potatoe Crisps ( that would be potatoe chips in American English) found that 50% of purchasers favored a product with a carbon footprint label, while 69% looked more favorable at the manufacturer for demonstrating transparent leadership.  Very interesting.

 -Brendan

Consumers have a desire to lessen the impact of global warming but cannot do it without companies and industries joining the fight. The types of reductions that need to occur worldwide are so hefty that it is going to take a collective effort by governments, corporations, and individuals.

The growth of the Corporate Social Responsibility departments and Director of Ethics titles is only further evidence that companies are realizing the pull consumers have when they become zealous, motivated and organized. And I don’t mean a bunch of angry hippies on the corner waving signs; I mean a mainstream social movement where business practices are considered at the same time as product attributes.

Most consumers don’t want their companies’ utilizing sweatshop factories, cutting the lines of accounting standards, inflating CEO bonuses, and damaging the environment. More and more consumers are voicing their concerns until change happens, not on the individual company level but industry wide.

All this change in the last few years has led to one conclusion: consumer movements affect enterprise, regulation, laws, and the way we live our lives in a very big way. The Economist recently reported, A group of investors, organized by Ceres and the Investor Network on Climate Risk, wielding $4 trillion and including powerful funds such as CalPERS, the Californian public employees’ pension fund, and CalSTERS, the Californian teachers’ pension fund, discriminates in favor of cleaner firms.

The average American emits 15 tons of CO2 in a year’s time. More importantly the average US power plant emits 1 million metric tons of CO2 in one year. Individuals can buy more fuel efficient cars, ride public transportation, change out light bulbs, hang dry clothes, purchase local market produce, use hand push mowers and change the heating and cooling settings of their house. But for all their personal sacrifices, consumers also want to see the large contributors to greenhouse gas making an effort too. There is hope, check out this article about the booming renewable energy industry!

-Angie

Seriously folks, as soon as that incandescent bulb burns out, replace it with a Compact Florescent Light (CFL)! They are really cheap now compared to when they first came out, they save energy, fight climate, and they last many times longer so you will not have to get on a ladder so often!

The city of Portland oregon announced a scheme that is very close to a carbon tax. Here is what Portland, Oregon has decided: New homes built to the existing energy efficiency code will be taxed/fined, while homes that exceed the code by at least 45% efficiency will receive a reward.

Oregon already has one of the cleanest power grids in the country. Renewable energy is required, as well as a requirement for utilities to offset their emissions through the quasi-public nonprofit Climate Trust make Oregon’s leadership on global warming unquestionable.

Because the Oregon power grid is already so clean, mandating building efficiency standards will have little affect on greenhouse gasses compared to other cleanup efforts conducted elsewhere (For example, those generated efficiently as offset credits). The result could be a housing pinch that simply forces new construction out of the city limits.

This new law will require new government staff and bureaucracy for inspections and verification of the energy efficiency of new construction. I believe that this money could be better spent on renewable energy development, or continued funding of offsets through the Oregon Climate Trust. By moving upstream away from the users (homeowners) and toward the producers (power companies), the city government can use state agencies that already exist in Oregon to provide low emissions energy.

What are Kilowatts? 

According to the US Department of Energy, 40% of all electricity used to power home electronics is consumed while the products are turned off, though not unplugged. So even though the appliances, clocks, radios, computers, lamps are turned off they are still adding to your kWh total. Think about items you use less frequently around the house and unplug them. Help bring your energy bill down and your carbon footprint.

It is important to understand how much power you are using as you try to get your carbon footprint under control. If you are confused about your power bill and what it means, this should be a help.

A watt is a unit of energy use often applied to electricity. If you liken electricity flowing through metal wires to the water flowing through a garden hose, the watts would be the amount of water, the volts would be the pressure, and the amps are the size of the hose.

A kilowatt-hour (kWh) is a unit of energy equal to one kilowatt (1000 watts) of power running or being used for one hour of time. For example, if you are cooking a chicken in your 800 watt toaster oven, and reading a book under four 50 watt incandescent light bulbs, you would be using 1000 watts of energy, or 1 kilowatt. If this went on for one hour, it would be one kilowatt hour of energy use.

The energy consumed by businesses and homes if often expressed in Kilowatt-hours. A megawatt-hour is equivalent to 1000 kWh and is most often used by larger business and institutions. A kilowatt-hour measures electrical energy whereas a kilowatt measures available power.

If one were so inclined you could use kW and ‘time’ to find the amount of Energy expressed in kWh.
Energy = Power * Time
So a 2.5 kW electric heater which runs for 5 hours would have a value of 12.5kWh.

Familiarity with kilowatt-hours can make figuring out your carbon footprint easier. Once you have a background of the language and items needed to figure out a carbon footprint you will have that much more faith in its accuracy as you are comfortable with where the data is coming from and why. Knowing that you have a 1200 watt microwave is nice, but it won’t get you very far in figuring out your footprint unless you know how long it runs. Using your electricity bill to find kilowatt-hours will help you when calculating your carbon footprint as it takes into consideration the amount of time.

-Angie

Here is a press release from the Chicago Climate Exchange.   

(Chicago – November 5, 2007) Chicago Climate Exchange® (CCX®), which launched its greenhouse gas trading operations in 2003, today announced the results of its auction of Carbon Financial Instrument (CFI) contracts conducted on behalf of the United States House of Representatives at its request. A financial institution, CCX is the world’s first and North America’s only voluntary, legally binding greenhouse gas emissions reduction, registry and trading system. The reverse auction was a bid for 300 CFIs representing 30,000 metric tons of CO2 equivalent from a diverse pool of USbased projects that have offset a concomitant amount of greenhouse gas emissions. The House will retire the tons purchased as one of several strategies to reduce the contribution to greenhouse gas accumulation derived from the operations of the US House. The auction was oversubscribed with a weighted average clearing price of $2.97/ton.

The event was held at the Chicago offices of CCX and attended by U.S. Representatives Rahm Emanuel, Mark Kirk, and Dan Lipinski and U.S. House of Representatives Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) Dan Beard. The Auction was held to meet the request of the U.S. House of Representatives (a CCX Exchange Participant) to purchase CFI contracts derived from U.S.-based greenhouse gas mitigation projects and was conducted as part of the “Greening of the Capitol Initiative” being administered through the Chief Administrative Officer of the U.S.
House of Representatives and described in the June 21, 2007 report “Green the Capitol Initiative.”

“We are pleased to have the Chicago Climate Exchange provide a price transparency mechanism through this auction service to U. S. House of Representatives as part of its “Greening of the Capitol Initiative,” said Dr. Richard Sandor, Chairman and CEO of CCX. “The U.S. House of Representative’s purchase of CCX Carbon Financial Instrument contracts highlights the contribution to climate change solutions being made by renewable energy providers, farmers, foresters, ranchers, and others, located across the United States, who are also helping build the environmental and financial institutions that can cost-effectively help address environmental concerns for generations to come.”

More information on the initiative is available from http://speaker.gov/pdf/GTCI621sum2.pdf

Which candidates are really green and which ones are greenwashed? The go-green movement is sure to hit the political scene, but which politicians are actualy putting their money where their mouth is. 

This week the US House of Representatives is purchasing carbon offsets from the CCX to neutralize what it can’t reduce. This is leadership, this is leading by example. These offset are part of a three prong strategy that calls for emissions reduction at the capitol.

This position by the US House of Representatives is exactly the type of movement and actions that need to take place to allow climate change to become a national topic and global one. Is your local or state official carbon neutral? Though many politicians are for emissions reduction and standards like LEED building, many have not taken the personal leadership that they need to take.

Ask your local elected official if they are running a carbon neutral campaign, or reducing emissions through lighting, printing, waste reduction, water reduction, and equipment use. If they aren’t challenge them on their leadership and have them give us a call at Standard Carbon. We know that change comes from each individual doing their part and the more we can increase awareness through an elected officials platform the more push we can have for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and the better stewards we can be for our environment.

Quote: “Changing to more energy efficient light bulbs is a fine thing to do, but to somehow imply we can avert a climate disaster by these actions is absurd.”

This is an excerpt from US Senator James Inhofe in Sept of 2006 in which he blasts media coverage of global warming and calls the Kyoto Protocol symbolism and nothing more. At Standard Carbon we would argue that changing a light bulb is exactly what we need. What makes changing a light bulb effective is when you get 100-200 million people changing their light bulbs. You get businesses saving $ and electricity by using motion censors, efficient heating and cooling systems, and yes changing light bulbs!

According to the Environmental defense fund, by replacing a single 100 watt incandescent light bulb with a new compact florescent bulb, one can save over $100 and 1,400 lbs of CO2.

The cure for CO2 pollution may come in many small doses. This does not mean that something as simple as changing a light bulb is absurd!

-Angie