Offset your carbon footprint...

What's your carbon footprint? It's basically what total effect you have on the climate in terms of greenhouse gases you produce. You may say, "But James, I've already taken steps towards becoming green... My footprint's gotta be small." Well, you may be surprised. Every time you use non-green energy, your carbon footprint grows. Every time you start your car or travel by plane or fertilize your lawn or use air conditioning or turn on the heater or... I think you get the picture. Unfortunately, there aren't yet green alternatives to a lot of activities that are a part of everyday life, so you can never really get rid of that stinky footprint. And that's why there are carbon offsets: Carbon offsets are a valuable, short-term tool to help us transform to a low or no-carbon economy in which carbon offsets are no longer needed. Carbon offsets are a mechanism to accommodate the fact that for now, there are practical limits to how much each of us can reduce our own energy use. To make up for the carbon emissions we can't avoid, we can instead help someone or something else reduce other carbon emissions. Basically, carbon offsetting involves helping someone to do something that they wouldn't otherwise have done, that results in less carbon emissions than would have happened had you not helped them to do it. A carbon offset is what you get when you say "I'll help, but in exchange, I want the right to claim the carbon reductions as my own." Source: NativeEnergy.com So if you haven't done so in your personal life or in your business, it's time to offset your carbon footprint! A great tool that I used in my home and at James Ray International is NativeEnergy's Lifestyle Calculator... It'll help you calculate your total footprint and then provide options for offsetting it. And guess what? The cost is minimal compared to the impact!