Idea Details

Our nonprofit energy efficiency & renewable energy business of 170 people adopted a %u201Cbig hairy audacious goal%u201D (BHAG) to offset our carbon footprint by 10,000-fold in 20 years! By 2027, we%u2019ll be avoiding 10,000 pounds of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for every pound we contribute, and we'll be avoiding 20 million tons annually of GHG emissions by 2027. We%u2019re not just as a business, but we%u2019re a community, so in calculating our carbon footprint, we included our personal & household impacts. The personal decisions we make %u2013 the foods we eat, where we go on vacation, the cars we drive - have great impacts. We%u2019ll use a toolkit to achieve our BHAG, including software to track emissions & progress, social networking (contests, brown-bag discussions) & incentives from the business to inspire & motivate us, and we'll explore other ideas like internal carbon trading. We think that acting as a community is a powerful model that can work and that we%u2019d love to share with other businesses!