Carbon Offsets? What Are Those?

We’ve done a lot of talking about our cold brew subscription service, but we aren’t done yet. Not only do we bring your cold brew to your front door, but we also do it sustainably. Part of that sustainable practice includes carbon offsets.

What are carbon offsets and why are they necessary?

Let’s go to the basics. Carbon dioxide naturally exists in our atmosphere and is one of two major gases known as greenhouse gases. Greenhouse gases’ existence keeps the planet warm enough to sustain life well. The issue is that human activity increases the amount of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere, leading to what is known as “global warming”. The increase of specifically carbon dioxide in our atmosphere has led to 91% of the global warming that has occurred in the last 5 years, which means that tackling carbon dioxide emissions has a great impact on reducing global warming.

So how do carbon dioxide emissions happen, and how can we reduce how much carbon dioxide is produced and released into our atmosphere? Carbon dioxide gas is produced through the burning of fossil fuels, which primarily occurs to provide electricity, heat, and transportation.

What is the solution to this? Carbon offsets. It is a buzzword that gets thrown around primarily when it comes to buying flights. You can buy a ticket “with carbon offsets” in order to make a trip more sustainable but what does that actually mean? Paying extra for a plane ticket doesn’t magically make the plane emit less carbon dioxide. Instead, that money will most likely go towards reducing the carbon dioxide emissions in the atmosphere later on through other means.

Essentially, carbon offsets are compensations for carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere. This can happen in all sorts of ways, but most commonly occurs through massive carbon-capturing technologies or through tree planting organizations.

How do we at Blue House manage our carbon emissions and utilize carbon offsets?

At Blue House, we know how much carbon dioxide we are responsible for because we've calculated all of our activities and their effect on our atmosphere using a calculator that you can actually find and utilize for yourselves here. Based on our emissions, we are utilizing a local tree planting organization called Trees Matter to offset the amount of carbon dioxide we emit in a way that also helps the community.

Throughout their whole lives, trees undergo a chemical process of photosynthesis, absorbing carbon dioxide from the air, and producing oxygen. This is just one benefit of planting trees, some of the others including providing biodiversity and improving the air and soil quality. We are so excited to be able to partner with Trees Matter to make this happen! They are passionate about improving the environment we live in by inspiring and promoting an increased tree canopy in the valley. Through this, however, they are also passionate about creating local socioeconomic and health equity! In our next blog post we will be highlighting more of what they do and how to get involved, but until then if you are curious, check out their organization at https://treesmatter.org!