A “Green Holiday” is the goal of many people who will ship packages to loved ones this year.  So along with the socks made from bamboo, recycling a cardboard box, and using newspaper instead of wrapping paper, remember that shipping can also be a great way to Green your holiday.

On October 8, 2009 UPS announced that they are launching a program that allows customers an option to purchase a carbon offset any time they ship a package. UPS customers pay a flat fee of $0.05 cents for ground shipments and $0.20 cents for air shipments. Certified offsets are purchased which support of variety of different programs including waste water treatment, landfill gas destruction and wetland restoration.

As a company dedicated to creating carbon neutral shipments, Green Shipping (www.greenshipping.com) is glad to see that other organizations are beginning to consider their shipment emissions and offer ways to offset them. “What is good for the environment is also good business.” Reducing the CO2 emitted by packages will help in the fight against climate change. Green Shipping offers a comprehensive carbon neutral shipping solution and supports shipments from UPS, FedEx, USPS as well as freight carriers. Green Shipping uses the weight, mode of transportation, and routing information for each and every shipment in order to provide the most accurate carbon footprint calculation available.
With Green Shipping, participating businesses can use their environmental commitment as a competitive advantage. Certified Green Shippers can display the Green Shipping logo on their website and in communication to their customers. With the Green Shipping iTrack™ package tracking tool, businesses can quickly and easily enable package tracking on their website and provide customers with a one stop solution for information on their orders. Green Shipping offsets the environmental impacts of customer shipments with purchases from Bonneville Environment Foundation who was award the EPA 2009 Green Energy Supplier of the Year award and is leading the way to a cleaner environment.
For more info on Green Shipping’s carbon neutral shipping solution, check out our short video
For more info on UPS carbon neutral shipping click here

This online tutorial will guide you through the process of linking your shipment information to greenshipping.com, so you are always up to date on your shipment tracking. How to Track your packages

The Economics of Climate Adaptation Working Group, a member of the Swiss Re Center for Global Dialogue, released their report, Shaping Climate Resilient Development, today. The Report concludes that the global cost of climate change will be around 19% of the world’s GDP by 2030. Some key risks associated with climate change that the report discusses are increased droughts which will lead to a $7billion dollar loss in Indian agriculture and increased hurricanes equaling $33 billion/ year for mitigation and repair in Florida.

The report then calls for global decision makers to take action and begin investing in climate change mitigation.  Such investments would work towards significant increases in renewable energy, energy efficiency and SMART grids.  The main call for action is for decision makers to integrate climate change adaptation with economic development. So, the key question becomes “How can we reach our development targets while accounting for current and future risks?” instead of “How can we minimize the damage from climate hazards?”

The Economics of Climate Change Working Group does not state that their report is a concrete solution to such a complex issue, but hopefully it will help the world’s economic decision makers (and us) begin to think of development as it relates to climate change risk.

Green Energy News is a web based journal that is focused on reporting breaking stories in the renewable energy industry. This great article is about our work and collaboration with BEF and the power of offsetting carbon emissions.

That’s right, the 1968 launch of Apollo 8 was powered by hydrogen fuel cells, a technology that Francis Bacon adapted for NASA’s use. This efficient and “carbon neutral” power source has been continually used by the space industry ever since. The more impressive thing is that the by product of fuel cells is water, and NASA is able to capture it for the astronauts to drink. Now, that sounds like Waste = Food/Cradle to Cradle to me!

So, why aren’t fuel cells a regular source of energy?  Why can’t I fill up with hydrogen?  Well, the sourcing of hydrogen and the process of converting it into energy are not yet sustainable and are more costly than gas.  However, many companies around the globe are working on creating renewable hydrogen, therefore lowering costs.  This is definitely a technology with a huge Green potential.

Check out the BBC article for more info!

As the green movement continues to move through industries, more and more innovative new technologies find their way to the market. The new MotionPower Technology by New Energy is a speed bump used in areas of slow moving traffic that will harness the kinetic energy from cars and convert it into electricity.

There are estimates that we drive around 6.3 billion miles every day in the U.S. If the kinetic energy generated by moving vehicles was captured at any given moment, it could produce enough electricity to power over a quarter million homes each day.

Here is an article on Cleantechnia and Treehugger about the device.