GZ Carbon Offset Fund

The lifestyle of a typical UK person contributes about 10 tonnes of carbon dioxide into the earth’s atmosphere each year.

The Go Zero Carbon Offset Fund provides an opportunity to offset your emissions by funding sustainable energy and tree planting projects.

If you are interested in calculating your personal footprint based on your individual lifestyle please visit www.carboncalculator.co.uk [1]

What is the Go Zero Carbon Offset Fund?

Go Zero tackles complex, global issues by looking closely at our own local actions. Probably the biggest issue is the threat of global warming that could lead to dramatic and damaging climate change. The Go Zero Carbon Offset Fund addresses global warming.

An essential part of becoming zero waste is to become zero carbon.

To get there we might consider offsetting our emissions. We can do this through many different schemes, either locally or elsewhere in the world; schemes that prevent the release of greenhouse gases or that capture carbon dioxide directly out of the air.

Already we have identified a crop-tree planting scheme in Tamil Nadu that not only captures carbon dioxide by tree growth but provides fruits and nuts that will contribute to the economic development of the area.

We are running an offset fund to raise donations from anyone who feels part of the Go Zero Project. Donations are related to your own estimates of carbon emissions created by your household during each year and from the time you spend flying.

The money raised will be spent on schemes decided by the Go Zero Steering Group in an open and fully transparent way.

How to offset your carbon emissions

Donations to the fund are voluntary, self-assessed and confidential – only the total amount of money put into the fund will ever be published.

The scheme is based on the concept of an average household running one car. We classify this average household as 4 units.

You are invited to estimate how many units you think you represents. For example, if you live in a small flat and don’t have a car then that would be 1 unit; if you live in a mansion with many cars it could be 10 units or more.

Each unit is a £25 donation per year, so an average household would donate £100 per year.

In addition we suggest a donation of £1 for every hour each person in the household spends flying. So New York and back would be about £10.

If a member wishes they can make a more precise estimate of their carbon emissions using one of the many online calculators, and base their donation on that.

To donate please download this form [2].

If you are a taxpayer and wish to donate more than £25 then please link to the Go Zero Fund [3] where you can pay into the fund by credit card and we can reclaim tax via Gift Aid.