As many of you probably know, today, October 15th, is the first annual International Blog Action Day. Thousands of blogs are joining together to write about one topic in many different voices: the environment. It’s a fantastic idea that’s gained some tremendous support from the United Nations, Google, LifeHacker and thousands of other partners big and small.
SEOmoz is very proud to have been the first blog-based company to sign on to join this effort. We were and are more than happy to lend whatever influence we may have to get an effort of this magnitude and importance rolling. The timing of Blog Action Day seems a bit uncanny what with Al Gore and the IPCC winning a joint Nobel Peace Prize just last week for their work in expanding climate-change awareness. However, when it comes to issues like the environment and the climate-change crisis, there’s no such thing as too much attention.
We tend to shy away from political issues here on the blog, but I don’t consider the current environmental crisis to be the least bit political. It’s a humanitarian issue that everyone should care about regardless of political leanings. Climate change, industrial pollution, deforestation, carbon dioxide emissions…these things affect all of us, regardless of nationality, skin color, tax bracket, religious beliefs or voting history. There is only one thing that truly separates people when it comes to the world’s environmental problems: those who are willing to do something and those who aren’t. And that’s really what Blog Action Day is all about, bringing thousands of voices together to talk about what they’ve done and what others can do. To show that there are a ton of ways you can make a difference and they don’t have to be expensive, or time-consuming or difficult…every little bit really can count.
So, soapbox aside, what has SEOmoz done to be part of the solution? Over the last several months, since Collis, Leo and Cyan contacted us about joining Blog Action Day, we’ve been auditing our records and calculating our annual carbon emissions for all of our business activities. We are proud to say that today, to commemorate Blog Action Day, we made a contribution of $340 to Carbonfund.org to offset 62 metric tonnes of CO2 emissions (slightly more than the 56.2 tonnes SEOmoz generated in the last year) to make SEOmoz officially Carbon Neutral.
Fun Facts:
- 73.7% of SEOmoz’ carbon emissions are the result of air travel! Jeez, all of those conferences add up!
- Our office energy consumption is surprisingly low. We’re virtually paperless around here and try to be really good about turning off lights and monitors at night (also, almost all of our light bulbs are compact fluorescents).
How can you become Carbon neutral also? It’s actually really easy, just go to Carbonfund.org and use their handy calculators to figure out how much carbon you produce as an individual, family or business. It doesn’t take long and only requires you take the time to review your power bills, travel records and a few other figures from the past year, or even a few months to get an estimate. The calculator will then tell you how much CO2 your activities generate each year and how much you’d need to donate to offset your carbon footprint. Organizations like Carbonfund accomplish this by using your donations to invest in renewable energy, reforestation and efficiency programs. It’s basically a credit system: your donation will fund a project that will reduce carbon emissions somewhere by the amount that you produce at home, the result: carbon neutrality.
While we’re proud that we’ve gone Carbon Neutral, and we hope everyone reading will consider taking a little time and a little money to do the same, we’re not stopping there. As part of Blog Action Day, SEOmoz will donate 25% of all sales made today to the Nature Conservancy, the leading conservation organization working around the world to protect ecologically important lands and waters for nature and people (they also have a carbon footprint calculator). This is a great conservation cause that we’re happy to contribute to. Want to help them and make an impact today? Well, all you have to do is purchase a Premium Membership. Along with all of the great features and materials you’ll get, you’ll also effectively be donating $100 (on a 1-year membership) to a great environmental cause and joining the thousands of folks participating in Blog Action Day!
Again, we couldn’t be happier to be a part of this momentous event. We send thanks and praise out to all of those bloggers and blog-readers the world over who’ve come together to make this happen and do their part to raise awareness and make a difference by helping to protect the environment and reverse climate change. We humbly invite all of our readers and members to join the movement and do what you can to help.
Cheers,
Scott
p.s. FROM RAND: A friendly reminder that SEOmoz’s blog comments are NOT a good spot for political debate. Thanks!
