Offset or Reduction: What’s the Difference with Carbon Footprints?

As I scan the internet reading the latest environmental findings, as well as the latest ways to go green, two phrases continue to pop up: reducing your carbon footprint and offsetting your carbon footprint. It seems a little explanation of the difference between reducing and offsetting can make green savvy web surfing all the more productive.

When we reduce our carbon footprint we find ways to lessen our personal impact on planet earth. Everything we consume, every product we purchase and every lifestyle choice we make add to the impression, the footprint we leave behind us. Choosing green products, sustainable goods, locally grown products and recycling and reusing when we can helps reduce that impact.

Offsetting our carbon footprint is a matter of determining how much of a carbon footprint we have and then finding ways to balance or off set that impact. For everything we take away from the planet, we give back to the planet. We can do this as individuals or we can support organizations and companies that can offset the footprint for us.

It begins with a carbon footprint calculator. The one used by this site is the same one endorsed by the Environmental Protection Agency and provides a pretty accurate look at individual impact. After determining the number of tones of carbon you produce annually you can redeem yourself by donating to green programs that allow you to buy carbon credits that add rather than take away from the planet.

Donating money towards trees, protecting wildlife habitats, opting to buy green power (wind, solar or water) for your home as well as assisting organizations at the grassroots level who are trying to reduce carbon and add oxygen. The number of ways we can commit to the planet is pretty limitless when you start top think about it. The more I analysis my way of life and how my family consumes goods and power the more I see where there are opportunities for change.

We can’t all stick a windmill in our backyards, especially when we don’t have a backyard. We can’t stick solar panels on a roof we don’t own or green windows into panes we rent, but we can make smarter choices. Driving less and walking more, switching off and unplugging appliances and supporting those individuals and organizations trying to do the right thing has to be the right way to go, at least for me.

It seems a combination of reducing and offsetting may be the best way to contribute to real change in America.