Across the Country- Carbon Offset Actions

By Jennipher Murphy, Novice Explorer


This is a busy time of year here in Monterey with marathons, festivals and the Grand Prix. Sometimes I forget that there are many other organizations across the country dedicated to offsetting carbon emissions as much as we are so I was excited to stumble upon this entry in Renewable Energy Magazine!

In 2007, Google committed to becoming a carbon neutral company and Blue Source, a ten year old nationwide company that has developed North America’s largest portfolio of carbon offsets, is partnering with them to “register third-party verified credits created by the project and placing them on the Climate Action Reserves public registry”.  The credits are created by capturing gas emissions from the landfill and converting it to electricity. Google then purchases these credits at market value. The project between Blue Source and Google Inc. is innovative and an overall impressive plan because the partnership doesn’t just focus on the purchase of the credits but also involves utility companies, local governments and the private sector. Getting all of these stakeholders on-board is critical for a successful program. Kudos to Google and Blue Source!

My big question now is how can the project be enhanced to make it even better? Is Google planning on purchasing all of their carbon offsets through the South Carolina utilities or are there plans to expand this effort locally to each individual Google office? I believe the wave of the future is to create more local grassroots initiatives. This in turn, creates incentives in making carbon emission reductions a reality while helping spur economic development. It is more of a sustainable alternative to purchasing credits because it involves various stakeholders and creates local jobs. Having more high profile companies like Google Inc. commit to reducing emissions will only benefit the industry by creating awareness. It’s a win-win!

Check out this video of a local Monterey effort by Monterey Waste Reduction Management District (MWRMD) on how they are selling their extra methane electrical to PG &E.