A few weeks ago I formed a small business partnership with Carbonfund.org to offset all of Dreamtime Images’ carbon emissions. My offsets cover my air and car travel, my energy use, and anything else the business does to release carbon into the atmosphere. I’m really proud of this since it touches on the core of my business. Pretty much everyone who hires me has a deep love for the natural world, and they want me to capture images of them surrounded by the beauty of the outdoors. So I’m pretty excited to do my part in preserving it.

The minimum partnership requirements for offsets were actually a lot bigger than the carbon footprint of my business, so the business offset spills over into our personal life. Our home, personal travel, and all other emissions we’re directly responsible are offset through three types of carbon reduction projects.

One project involves reforestation in Nicaragua. Paso Pasifico has partnered with Carbonfund.org to help private reserve owners and small-scale farmers restore abandoned pastures to native forest. This project is really important to me; I studied tropical ecology in college in Panama, Costa Rica and Panama, and every time I go back I still get blown away at how barren the landscape is and how important its restoration is. The next set of projects revolves around renewable energy, with my donation funding wind, solar and hydoelectric projects around the country. Then there are a series of energy efficiency projects, such as reducing the emissions from 18-wheelers and other large trucks.

The way carbon offsets work is kind of complicated, but in short, Carbonfund.org can figure out how much carbon I’m responsible for, put a monetary value on it, and then use that money to fund other projects to reduce carbon emissions by that same amount. Lots of huge companies have partnered with Carbonfund.org, including Dell computers, Yakima bike racks, Orbitz, Discovery Communications, Amtrack, and dozens of others.

Carbonfund.org is a great organization: it’s a 501.c3 and it keeps the cost of offsets so low that they’re accessible to everyone. Some of the other carbon offset places you might find on the internet are for-profit companies with no transparency. How much their owners and directors make is a secret — and it’s probably a lot since they wind up charging four to five times more for offsets than Carbonfund.org.

If you’re interested in learning more about Carbonfund.org, check out the site. There’s also a module to let you figure out the carbon footprint of your wedding and then offset it. I’m hoping to help them develop the wedding end of their organization more, and maybe run promotions in the future for carbon free weddings.

Stay tuned for more green wedding stuff!