Oscars Go Green

Last night’s 79^th annual Academy Awards were hailed as the first green awards in the events storied history.  So what exactly do they mean by green?  We here at Informed Building were curious and decided to look into this.

The Oscar’s greening was more extensive than just awarding Al Gore’s ‘An Inconvenient Truth ’ two Oscars, one for best documentary feature and the other for Melissa Etheridge’s song “I Need to Wake Up.”

In collaboration with the Natural Resources Defense Council , a non-partisan environmental and advocacy organization, green eco-friendly planning was used in many aspects of the planning and production of the Oscars.  In what appears to be the first step in a long term green plan for the event, organizers sought to reduce the awards' ecological footprint by choosing to use recycled supplies, recycling and waste reduction practices and green friendly vendors.

Most intriguing perhaps is the Oscars’ decision to offset pollution from the show and related events by purchasing carbon credits .  These carbon credits essentially allow an individual or organization to offset the pollution they create by making an investment in renewable energy or reforestation projects.  The good news is that these credits are affordable and you too can purchase carbon credits for everything from your car to your business.

Ecobusinesslinks.com provides a great resource outlining the various companies through which individuals may purchase credits.  Prices start as low as $3.56 per metric ton of CO2 – which would cover about 3,500 miles of driving a mid-sized car – and go up from there.  Don’t just shop on price though, the different credit providers provide varying means of offsetting carbon output and we encourage you to find the right match for you.  For example, Vermont based NativeEnergy has higher rates, but when you purchase carbon credits from them your money is being directly invested in new Native American and family farmer-owned renewable energy projects under development that truly need extra funding to get financed and built. 

That being said, carbon offsetting is not the end all solution and should never be a substitute for reducing emissions. The ultimate goal should be to reduce your ecological footprint as much as possible.  In the mean time, carbon credits are the best alternative for taking care of your emissions until you are able to reduce them.

We commend the Oscars for their environmental consciousness and using their time in the spotlight to help bring the concept of green living to the American public.  We hope you take this opportunity to review your ecological footprint and take steps towards a greener future. 

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