What you can do!
The first and most important thing to do is reduce your greenhouse gas emissions wherever possible—turn off the lights when you leave the room, use energy efficient appliances, turn down the thermostat, get an energy audit for your home, use compact fluorescent light bulbs, take public transit where possible, buy a fuel efficient car, vacation close to home, fly less.
Using the calculators on this site you can quantify your emissions sources and determine where to make reductions to emissions from your air travel, road Travel and home.
Second, you can neutralize some or all of your remaining emissions by purchasing high quality carbon offsets. Buying carbon offsets means that you are investing in a project that reduces greenhouse gas emissions by developing new sources of renewable energy or through energy conservation. The emissions that you produce are balanced by the reductions achieved by the offset project, leaving you with zero net emissions. In order to ensure that the reductions really happen, and are triggered by your investment, it’s important to purchase high quality offsets like those registered to the Gold Standard.
And don’t forget to let your political representatives know that you are taking responsibility for your emissions, and that you expect them to show leadership by taking decisive action to reduce Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions.
