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Why is Solar Power Better Than Renewable Energy Credits (RECs) or Carbon Offets?

Marc Gunther, a contributer at the Huffington Post, has an interesting piece on the practice of carbon offsetting. He mentions a statement I made last week when I was talking about why Greenest Host goes beyond other “green” hosting providers. I said, “It is important to note that this is NOT a green solution because we are buying Renewable Energy Credits or carbon offsets…We are not paying a penance for our emissions sins, we are just not committing the sins in the first place.”

I was absolutely suggesting that carbon offsets are less desirable than not creating pollution emissions in the first place. However, I would agree that there’s a place in this world for legitimate carbon credit trading. For example, it’s nearly impossible to be a business person in a developed nation and not take emissions-creating transportation or rely on some forms of dirty power generation, but we can definitely take steps to lessen the frequency and find alternatives. To me that’s the point — when we can’t find alternatives, it’s great that there’s a way to feel we’re still making a difference.

Our company approach in creating no need to buy carbon offsets in the first place has yielded extra money to donate to causes we believe will further make a difference in making a positive shift in global climate change (in our case it’s The Environmental Defense Fund.) It’s a total win-win and, at the end of the day, we believe we’re able to make more of a difference that way.