Green Wombat

Big Utility's Big Carbon Offset Progran

Giant utility American Electric Power said today it will buy 4.6 million carbon credits to capture methane produced by some 400,000 cows between 2010 and 2017. The Ohio-based utility - one of the U.S.'s largest producers of coal-fired electricity - did not disclose the price of the credits. Farmers in the 11 states where AEP operates will receive payments for participating in the program. AEP's (AEP) deal with the the Environmental Credit Corp. calls for the methane, a potent greenhouse gas, to be captured in covered lagoons and burned off. That still produces carbon dioxide, of course.  But if AEP really wants to neutralize the greenhouse gas emissions - and tap some naturally clean power - it could emulate California utility PG&E (PCG) by supporting the conversion of methane into biogas to generate electricity on farms or at natural gas plants.

Salesforce.com Goes Carbon Neutral

Wind farm project in the Native American village of Kasigluk, Alaska

How much does it cost to make your company carbon neutral? In the case of Salesforce.com (CRM), the bill for offsetting the greenhouse gases produced by its corporate operations in 2006 comes to $126,000, or about $6.40 per ton of carbon emitted. The Web-based software company today announced Earthforce, an initiative to neutralize its contribution to global warming by funding alternative energy and forest conservation projects. Salesforce.com worked with the non-profit Cool Air Cool Planet and Native Energy, a  Native American owned renewable energy company, to calculate that the San Francisco tech company's data centers, offices and corporate travel produced about 19,700 tons of carbon last year. To compensate, the company's Salesforce.com Foundation will help finance Native Energy wind farm projects in Alaska and South Dakota, a family farm wind farm, and a methane digester to produce electricity from cow manure - cower power - at a family-owned dairy farm. Salesforce.com will also work with Conservation International to preserve the threatened but ecologically rich Makira rain forest in Madagascar. The idea: the amount of renewable energy produced by the wind farms and methane digester and the carbon absorbed by the rain forest will zero-out the carbon produced by Salesforce.com's operations. According to Native Energy, an independent audit is conducted to ensure the offsets purchased result in actual emission reductions. "We feel it's an important first step for us to take," Bruce Francis, Salesforce.com's VP for corporate strategy, told Green Wombat. "We wanted to be able to tell our customers that when you partner with Salesforce you’re not contributing to global warming." He acknowledged that such programs are no longer just about green marketing. "Increasingly, smart customers are going to ask the question" about greenhouse gas emissions "and we want to have the answers for them," says Francis. Carbon offset programs are "quickly moving from a nice-to-have to a must-have." But with even old-line tech giants such as Dell (DELL) promoting programs like "Plant a Tree for Me,"  carbon-savvy customers are next going to be asking companies what they're doing to directly reduce greenhouse gas emissions - such as using energy-efficient servers and solar power and trading in gas hogs in their vehicle fleets for hybrids.

It's Buyer Beware When Purchasing Carbon Credits

Before you give your sweetie a holiday gift of carbon credits to make up for that global-warming flight to Fiji and all those unncessary greenhouse gas-emitting trips to Starbucks in the Subaru, it would be best to read a new report on the burgeoning carbon offset market to make sure your money is not going up in smoke. Responding to people's desire to do something on a personal level about climate change, nearly three dozen companies and non-profits now offer services to neutralize your contributions to global warming. That's done by selling an array of "carbon offsets" that are supposed to result in a corresponding reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. But the report commissioned by the Portsmouth, New Hampshire-based non-profit Clean Air Cool Planet found that there's no guarantee that buying offsets will do anything more than assuage your green guilt. "Achievement of personal carbon neutrality is certainly laudable. But pursuing carbon neutrality at the individual level will not solve global warming, or even mitigate it to any significant extent," the report's authors wrote. "Indeed, the potential for the retail offset market to inform and influence the public regarding global warming is almost certainly as important, if not more important, than its role in reducing actual (greenhouse gas) emissions."

Their conclusion after surveying 30 carbon offset services: "While we can identify top-tier providers based on currently available information, we cannot categorically state that purchasing offsets from them will render you carbon neutral." The reason for that is that offsetting greenhouse gases with personal carbon credits is an incredibly complicated endeavor. To be effective, the offsets purchased must result in additional greenhouse gas reductions that would not have otherwise occurred because of planned projects, government mandates or voluntary programs. For instance, buying credits attributed to Company X's previous commitment to cut greenhouse gas emissions by a certain amount would not make the world cooler. On the other hand, the report says that buying credits purchased on the European carbon trading market - a service Green Wombat wrote about last week - would have an impact on global warming. That's because the EU Emissions Trading Scheme limits total emissions among participating countries and by purchasing carbon credits you're taking off the market someone else's right to emit a certain amount of carbon dioxide, forcing actual reductions.

Stocking Stuffer for a Green Christmas: The $40 Carbon Credit Gift Pack

Naughty little boys and girls get a lump of coal in their Christmas stockings; green little boys and girls get...carbon credits to take coal gases out of the atmosphere and fight global warming. The Science Museum of London and UK specialty gift retailer MoonEstates.com are selling the Climate Relief Gift Pack, which includes 100 kilograms (about 220 pounds) worth of carbon credits bought on the European carbon trading market, known as the EU Emissions Trading Scheme. The market helps European countries meet their obligations under the Kyoto Accord by setting greenhouse gas emission limits and then requiring corporations that exceed that cap to purchase credits from those companies that have lowered their emissions. In other words, by purchasing the Climate Relief Gift Pack - retailing for £20 or about $40 - you take the right to emit 100 kilograms of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases off the market, offsetting your personal "carbon footprint" from driving, flying - and buying all those PlayStation 3s, iPods and other carbon-producing holiday presents.

Therein lies a business opportunity: personal carbon trading products have been proliferating like coal-fired power plants in China, often confusing enviro-minded citizens about which are legitimate carbon offset services and which are just green-fleecing schemes. What's needed is someone to create a certification program to give a green seal of approval to legitimate personal carbon trading services and to roll up these various programs.