There have been a flurry of cities, public and private businesses and even individuals recently proclaiming that they are becoming carbon neutral to fight global warming and climate change. Major search engines Yahoo and Google have both made this announcement for their own facilities. And in fact, the Yahoo Green campaign will award the greenest city in the U. S. a fleet of hybrid taxicabs to further their effort towards becoming carbon neutral.
Rupert Murdoch has announced that Fox News is going carbon neutral and the city of Toronto has announced its Zerofootprint campaign with the goal of the entire metropolitan area becoming carbon neutral. Al Gore once claimed to be carbon neutral, which set off a firestorm of controversy surrounding his buying of carbon credits to offset his jet setting lifestyle.
Subaru Motors in Lafayette, Indiana has claimed to have a zero landfill by recycling 100-percent of its automobiles in an effort towards carbon neutrality. Southern New Hampshire University is trying to become carbon neutral by using wind farms and carbon offsetting. The Solar Two Arts and Education Center in New York City will become the city’s first carbon neutral building.
So, who else is becoming carbon neutral:
1. Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream
2. Cameron Hughes Wine
3. Parducci Winery
4. Mohawk Fine Papers
5. Middlebury College in Vermont
6. Sacramento Capitol Building
7. Direct Energy in Canada
8. Masdar in Abu Dhabi
9. New Zealand
10. Norway
So, “carbon neutral” may be the latest green buzzword, but is this a bad thing? Not at all. By committing to reduce carbon emissions and following through with this commitment we’ll all breathe a little easier in the future.
Also, by reducing carbon, other energy sources will need to be used instead of fossil fuels, which is a natural lead-in for the hydrogen economy to take hold. Part of the natural evolution towards zero emissions will be the adoption of hydrogen cars. So, carbon neutral in effect means hydrogen positive. And, this can’t be all bad, now can it?