Carbon neutrality

IASTE Jump 2011 is carbon neutral! But… how does it work?

In order to limit climate change to a rate bearable for humans and the environment, we must try to release as little CO2 as possible without compromising essential human comforts – nobody wants to do the IASTE dance in the dark or without music! Our carbon neutral sponsor South Pole Carbon offsets our unavoidable emissions such as travel and accomodation through one of their transparent and sustainable carbon reduction projects. Contrary to air pollution, where reductions must occur at the source of the emission, the reduction of greenhouse gases is not governed by the proximity of the emission source. Thus it makes sense to avoid emissions produced in one location through another source or location. This is called offsetting.

Consequently: we calculated our IASTE Jump 2011 emissions in South Pole's carbon webshop so they can be compensated in one of their emission reduction projects. These are located in developing countries, but also in emerging countries such as China, India or Brazil, replacing fossil fuel power plants with renewable energy plants, avoiding methane emissions or installing energy efficiency measures. Thus, a large quantity of greenhouse gas emissions are “saved”, which can compensate for inevitable emissions elsewhere. For this year's IASTE Jump we chose a project that is capturing methane, a greenhouse gas 21 times stronger than CO2, and using it for sustainable power generation at a starch plant in Thailand,. Check out the project video and the fact sheet!

In the end there are no additional greenhouse gases released to the atmosphere when compared to a status quo model. In addition to the climate benefits, South Pole’s projects also improve the quality of life of the affected local population, e.g. by supporting educational programs and local farmers. Learn more at www.southpolecarbon.com.