A new year. A new blog. As part of an old-fashioned new year’s resolution I am starting this blog. A blog on sustainability, on my personal journey to live more sustainable and my views on progress in this area. There are many blogs on sustainability but this topic is so important, there cannot be enough. The partial failure of the climate conference at Copenhagen last December shows that the sense of urgency has not reached those in power and only through large scale mobilization of our political power can we reach them and force a true change. If I can contribute to raising that awareness and making it actionable by sharing my own experiences and writing about how the world deals with sustainability, that will be a good thing. I am hoping this site will get some good dialogue going – eliminating the noise in all climate related information out there. Feel free to let me know what you think!
I will first share something about myself. I am 35 years old and I live in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. I have a 7 year old daughter and I have a long-distance relationship, regularly travelling to Munich, Germany. I work for a large software company as a marketing manager. I like gadgets, things that have a plug and usually a screen. I like cars, mostly ones that go fast and therefore use a lot of gas. I currently drive a Volkswagen Golf GTI (Mark V); it has a CO2 output of 189g/km. And it is a really good drive. Not comparable at all with say, a Toyota Prius which is green but just so incredibly boring. This will be an important part of my quest 
, can I still drive something satisfying in real life or do I need to save money for this. And yes, I will be testing green cars and share my findings.
Last year was the year when I became aware of the challenges that face us concerning climate change. I saw a number of documentaries, read numerous books, talked to many informed people and when the Genie is out of the bottle, it is hard to put it back in. So from last year on I am thinking about my own place in climate change. I am thinking about how I can lower my CO2 output and yet be able to do the things I like.
So, next to some steps I will elaborate on later, I stumbled on this service; CO2 compensation. Sounds very good, a couple of Dutch business men who left their positions at successful companies and started a company on their own; www.OCO2.com . On their website they state that no matter how hard you try, you just cannot live CO2 neutral in the current society. That is why they offer a service to compensate your CO2 output. How does it work? You fill in your personal CO2 calculator on the site and they charge you a specific amount per kilo CO2 that you put in the atmosphere annually. What do they do with the money? They invest it in projects that help build a CO2 neutral world. All projects are certified by The Gold Standard, a carbon credit standard. This standard comes endorsed by organizations like the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and Greenpeace. The money you pay will be used to pay for projects that replace the need for fossil fuels like wind parks.
I am not fully convinced yet by the approach and by the amount they charge. For instance, it would cost me (with an output of almost 20 tons CO2) about 285€ to compensate for my output. So, I wonder, what happens if everybody would use this service? Would we all be CO2 neutral as they claim you can call yourself after you paid the money? I don’t think so since we are not ready for that by a long shot. The same goes for green electricity and gas (which I have). If everybody now signs up for green power, the utilities won’t be able to deliver on it. This is off course the challenge. But since this CO2 compensation could help speed up the catch-up process in getting to a CO2 neutral world, it may be rather interesting. I have asked them how ‘real’ my claim of being CO2 neutral is after I pay the money. I have an appointment with them soon where I will ask them the questions outlined above. To be continued in a next upcoming post!
