Announcements

Executive Cultural Tours gives passengers an option

Executive Cultural Tours is now offering clients an opportunity to reduce the environmental impact of their travel by going "carbon neutral" through an Offsetting Policy in co-operation with Cleaner Climate.

What is "carbon neutral?"

Climate change is a serious problem, caused primarily by the carbon dioxide released from burning fossil fuels like oil, coal, and gas. But there are things we can do about it - like choosing to go carbon neutral.

Going carbon neutral is an easy way to take responsibility for the greenhouse gas emissions we create every time we drive our cars, take a plane, or turn on our computers. It's based on the principle that, since climate change is a global problem, an emission reduction made elsewhere has the same positive effect as one made locally.

Here's how it works: if you add polluting emissions to the atmosphere, you can effectively subtract them by purchasing 'carbon offsets.' Carbon offsets are simply credits for emission reductions achieved by projects elsewhere, such as wind farms, solar installations, or energy efficiency projects. By purchasing these credits, you can apply them to your own emissions and reduce your net climate impact.

Why Go Carbon Neutral?

To solve the problem of climate change, we all need to take account of our personal carbon emissions and make continued efforts to reduce them wherever possible. We know it is impossible to reduce our carbon emissions to zero, no matter how hard we try. Going carbon neutral by purchasing carbon offsets is a practical and affordable way to do something about those remaining emissions.

Purchasing high quality carbon offsets from projects such as wind farms also helps support the transition to a sustainable energy economy by providing an additional source of revenue to developers of renewable energy.

Information from the David Suzuki Foundation website.
www.davidsuzuki.org

Executive Cultural Tours's Carbon Emission Offsetting Program

Executive Worldwide travel has partnered with Cleaner Climate Ltd. (www.cleanerclimate.com), to provide a link to a "carbon calculator." This will allow you to determine the carbon emitted from your flight and voluntarily fund a renewable energy project in a developing country to offset it.

The company's projects are structured in accordance with guidelines set out by bodies such as the United Nations Framework Convention On Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Gold Standard and are monitored by a third party to verify that they offset the amount specified.

The Offset Project

Cleaner Climate's projects are based in South Africa and to be accredited as a 'Gold Standard' project they must meet certain guidelines and provide certain criteria including environmental, social and economic impact. In Durban, they have partnered with Phillips, one of the world's leading electronic companies, to supply and install 6 million energy-efficient light bulbs in poor communities with little to no infrastructure. Each light bulb over its 7 year life displaces ½ tonne of CO2. This means over a 7 year period over 3 million tonnes of CO2 will have been displaced. This is the equivalent of making 215,000 cars carbon neutral each year for 7 years.

Besides the environmental factor they are also saving the community money they would have spent on electricity, addressing the economic factor. Phillips will also train local unemployed people from the community, ensure installation and monitor the progress over the life of the projects.

Cleaner Climate also has a number of projects it is currently working on at prefeasibility stage. These projects include landfill remediation, solar thermal, solar pv (micro & macro) and coal mine methane extraction.