Carbon Credits - Is this really being "green"?

As businesses are being persuaded to go greener, one option available to some is to purchase carbon credits. By purchasing these credits, a business is not required to make significant changes to its processes in the immediate future, but rather, simply provides financial support either to businesses that exceed the government's environmental standards (and thus, have extra carbon credits they can sell), or to groups that promote conservation of the Earth's natural resources.

At first glance, it may seem that giving businesses the option to purchase credits is simply allowing them to put off ever making changes themselves. Should this option be considered a satisfactory way for them to meet the ever-increasing environmental requirements? The answer is - it's not too bad (at least for now). According to The Nature Conservatory, funding projects that prevent forest destruction is currently one of the most cost-effective ways to battle climate change. As discussed in one of our earlier blogs http://gogreenmug.blogspot.com/2009/02/deforestation-and-coffee-cups.html , deforestation accounts for a significant portion of the Earth's greenhouse gasses. And since the majority of deforestation occurs in other parts of the world, American businesses can get quite a "bang for their buck" when funding these preservation efforts.

So while businesses will ultimately need to make significant changes to their processes in order to have a neutral or positive effect on the planet, funding forest preservation and other environmental projects is a cost-effective way for them to handle the transition as cleaner technologies and processes are developed.

The Nature Conservatory is sponsoring conferences in Denver, Atlanta, and Nashville in the upcoming weeks, to discuss these options to businesses in more detail.

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