All across the news this week we have been hearing about the many private jets flying into the U.N. climate negotiations. It seems unfortunate that this event, meant to solve climate change, will generate such a large carbon footprint. We too in Expedition Copenhagen will be flying overseas for this conference, and we acknowledge our contribution to these emissions. While we regret that we will be producing large amounts of carbon through our travel, we feel strongly that it is worth the difference we will be able to make through our participation in these historic negotiations.

We have chosen to offset our carbon through NativeEnergy, which is working to develop the Greensburg Wind Farm in Greensburg, Kansas. On May 4, 2007, a tornado leveled Greensburg, destroying 95% of the homes in the area. In the aftermath, residents committed to rebuilding as “the greenest town in America.” We are happy to support their endeavor.

In order to calculate the emissions for Expedition Copenhagen, we added up the carbon generated through all delegate and staff travel to our two trainings and the negotiations in Copenhagen via a carbon calculator available online. Once the total carbon emissions had been estimated, we used NativeEnergy’s system to determine the quantity of offsets to purchase. These offsets will be used towards the development of wind energy, as described above. While we recognize that offset calculation is not a perfect science and cannot precisely make up for our emissions, we are glad to support renewable energy development in the Midwest and push our region to lead in the climate solutions we need and want.