Carbon Neutrality
What is "carbon neutrality" and what are "carbon offsets"?
Carbon neutrality, or "going carbon neutral," is a way for organizations, businesses, or people to help reduce global warming. Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the primary greenhouse gas that causes global warming. Going carbon neutral basically means that an entity is offsetting its carbon dioxide emissions so that its activities or operations are not contributing to global warming. With more and more people recognizing the danger of global warming, going carbon neutral is a meaningful and significant way for groups, businesses, and individuals to collectively offset their carbon emissions.
"Carbon offsets" are ways or measures that basically serve as credits against carbon emissions. Examples of carbon offsets include purchasing zero emission renewable energy credits (RECs or "green tags"), planting trees, energy efficiency credits, etc. In the Washington DC metropolitan region, one megawatt-hour of wind energy green tag offsets approximately 1,600 lbs of carbon dioxide. Riding a bike to work instead of driving saves the average commuter about 22 lbs. of carbon dioxide.
For more information on green energy solutions and carbon offsets, please visit Clean Currents, our team's primary sponsor at www.cleancurrents.com. Clean Currents sells green tags and can help businesses save money, while buying green energy. Also visit Clean Energy Partnership, which is a DC area non-profit, sustainable business group that promotes solutions to global warming. Learn more about Clean Energy Partnership at www.cleanenergypartnership.org.
A. "Team-Generated" Carbon Offsets
We track and verify bike commuter miles and other bike travel that members would have otherwise used their cars over the course of a year. These miles and activates avoid the emission of greenhouse gases. This data will be submitted to the non-profit organization Clean Energy Partnership ("CEP") for purposes of certifying the amount of carbon offsets these activities generate. CEP uses carbon calculation methods recommended by the World Resources Institute, an internationally recognized group.
The certified "team-generated" carbon offsets are then used by us to operate the team vehicle, which is a Volvo XC90 kindly provided by team presenting sponsor Don Beyer Volvo of Falls Church, Virginia, www.donbeyervolvo.com. This car will be "carbon neutral" based on team generated carbon offsets. The team car may not be used in excess of our certified carbon offsets. Clean Currents will provide any additional carbon offsets that we many need to keep our car in "neutral."
B. "Carbon Neutral Races" brought to you by Clean Currents
We have promoted numerous races over the years. Since 2007, these have included (1) the Carl Dolan Memorial Spring Classic, a race we have long promoted in Columbia, Maryland, (2) the Grand Prix of Silver Spring, which was run for a number of years (and last run in 2007) in the revitalized downtown of Silver Spring, Maryland, and (3) the Capital Criterium, a race that was first run in 2008 and is staged along Pennsylvania Avenue in downtown Washington, DC.
These races were held as "carbon neutral" events, making them the historic first carbon neutral slate of USCF races ever. How was carbon neutrality is achieved?
The distance each race participant travels from their registered home address to the event was measured, as were the distances of our club members and all support staff, officials, set up crews, and all others involved in the running, operation, or participation of the race. Unless we knew for certain, we assumed that all participants drove a car, even though cyclists often car pool. All electricity or power to be used during the event was also calculated.
All event data was submitted to CEP and CEP calculated the carbon emissions produced by the events. The calculated carbon emissions were then submitted to team sponsor Clean Currents, who donated the sufficient amount of "green tags" to make the race events carbon neutral.
Yes, this was a tremendous amount of work. However, we believe that as members of the cycling community, we should try to help neutralize our carbon emissions. While carbon emissions can not be completely avoided, they can be offset. For information on promoting "Carbon Neutral" sporting events, view our Promoter Guidlines page. Thanks for reading.
