Pledge to Act and Save Money

Hit with tough economic times, many people are “tightening their belts,” as they say. One might assume that the last thing they can afford to do is to be more environmentally conscious. The Cool Capital Challenge offers a way to not only be environmentally conscious and reduce your individual carbon footprint, but also to save money.

Visit http://www.coolcapitalchallenge.org/ and you can join the group of hundreds of companies, organizations, and individuals who have pledged to reduce their carbon footprint in Washington, DC. The goal is to pledge a total reduction of 2 billion pounds of CO2 within a year. Currently, the total pledged reduction is over 1 billion pounds.

The way it works is that you use a carbon calculator on the website to assess how many pounds of CO2 you are emitting each year and how much it is costing you to do so. Unlike many of the carbon calculators out there, the Cool Capital Challenge calculator gets into specifics, such as the number of light bulbs you use and the type of stove you cook with.

Once you are given your current carbon footprint, the next step is to make a pledge by checking off different tangible actions you can take to reduce your footprint and save money over time. Finally, it calculates out your pledged reduction and the monetary savings you will achieve.

Once you have submitted your pledge you can see the details for all of the other organizations that have pledged. For example, Zipcar has 59 employees who have made individual households pledges for a total reduction of 168,595 lbs of CO2 and a total savings of $11,356.73. It is a great way to share with your community your individual and organizational commitment to being more environmentally responsible. If everyone can follow through on these reductions, DC can set an example for the rest of the country for how community collaboration is an effective way to combat climate change.

Photo Credit: CC-licensed by Flickr user kimberlyfaye