Sherwood Design Engineers has purchased 30 tons of carbon offsets on behalf of the nearly 100 people who stopped by our booth at the 2007 Greenbuild Expo in Chicago!
This year, as an offering to the planet, we thought a fun, but real way to engage people at Greenbuild would be to have an interactive program, where folks leave us their name or business card on our Carbon Tree, and we make a carbon offset on their behalf. So instead of giving out something to take home with you, we’re giving back something we can all share.
It’s our way of contributing to the spirit of Greenbuild, which is finding creative ways to reduce the environmental impacts of our lives. Because even if you’re reading this on a solar-powered laptop, and travel exclusively by bicycle we’re all responsible together – not just for our cumulative carbon emissions – but for finding solutions to environmental challenges.
We’re purchasing our offsets with a Native American owned company called Native Energy that invests in Wind Power projects.
So “Thanks!” to all of you who came by our booth and participated! You can scroll below to see your names.
“Reduce what you can and offset the rest!”
The idea behind offsetting is that no matter how hard you try, you’re still going to be responsible for some polluting carbon emissions. But offsetting those emissions can help reduce your impact on the environment by supporting reduction efforts equivalent to the amount you’re polluting.
Learn more about carbon dioxide and global warming here.
Learn about how carbon offsetting helps here.
Click here to find tips and strategies for reducing your carbon footprint.
Who are the offsets with?
The offset company is called Native Energy. It’s owned by Native Americans, and invests in wind projects to support Native American communities, while helping reduce our dependence on coal and oil. They are the same company used by Ben&Jerry’s, Seventh Generation, Clif Bar, and Annie’s among others.
How much are the offsets equivalent to?
Our Carbon Offset Program was very popular this year, and we’re pleased to announce that we were able to purchase an offset equivalent to over 600 pounds for each of the participants! This amount is roughly equivalent to the Co2 emitted by 2 full tanks of gas in a regular car, or a plane ticket from New York to Chicago.
What else is Sherwood doing to be a green company?
As a firm we’re dedicated to greenbuilding practices and sustainability. We’ve done low impact design, ecological master-planning, built one of the first residential rainwater harvesters, we routinely work on LEED Gold and Platinum projects, and we’ve helped write sustainabiity standards for ecological development. Our founder is actually speaking on Friday about watershed management….
But aside from all that, we’re a Green Business certified by the city of San Francisco, and we have an Office Greening program that we actually write about here on our blog.
2007 Greenbuild Carbon Offset Program Participants
| Peggy | Christie | Christie Designs | |
| Jim | Leahy | Gaia Development | |
| Christopher | Sbarbaro | Parkson Corporation | Vernon Hills, IL |
| Gunther | Berg | Aim Engineering LLC | Plymouth, WI |
| Amy | Hebard | Earth Sense | Syracuse, NY |
| Armando | Hernandez | Pinnacle East | Central Islip, NY |
| Todd | Degner | The Care of Trees | Wheeling, IL |
| Olivia | Swinehart | PermaPave Industries, LLC | Jericho, NY |
| Jessica | Marsolek | Leo A Daly | Minneapolis, MN |
| Esther | Margulies | Mia Lehrer & Associates | Los Angeles, CA |
| Gregory | Williams | Bailey Edward Architecture | Chicago, IL |
| Ann | Kohler | Midwest Home | Minneapolis, MN |
| Claudio | Teitelbaum | Joal Teitelbaum | Brazil |
| Randy | Sauer | Mulvanny G2 Architecture | Portland, OR |
| Michele | Siewart | Innomation Inc. | Phillips, WI |
| Gabrielle | Fladd | Carducci Landscape Architects | San Francisco, CA |
| Alfred | Sena | Rio Rancho Public Schools | Rio Rancho, NM |
| Whitney | Powers | Studio A Architecture | Charleston, SC |
| Deborah | Lee | Leo A Daly | Minneapolis, MN |
| Jennifer | Prince | Sustainable Furniture Council | Chapel Hill, NC |
| Jeremy | Calleros Gauger | Arquitectonicageo | Miami, FL |
| Travis | Stanton | Exhibitor Magazine | Rochester, MN |
| Cathy | Thompson | Business Office Systems | Itasca, IL |
| Hal | Alguire | Directorate of Public Works | Fort Carson, CO |
| Sarah | Staten | A.L. Huber General Contractor | Overland Park, KS |
| Mark | Turner | ABDO Development | Washington, DC |
| Margaret | Cummins | Wiley | Hoboken, NJ |
| Matt | Owen | Taylor Metal Products, Inc | Salem, OR |
| Michael | Wellman | University of Michigan | |
| Mike | Pile | Sunlink PV Integration Systems | Larkspur, CA |
| Renee | Koellmer | ||
| Christian | Montminy | IDG World Expo | Framingham, MA |
| Michael | Green | Berkshire Development, LLC | Springfield, MA |
| Nicole | D’Entremont | interior design | Malden, MA |
| Donna | Hartman | ZENON Membrane Solutions | Oakville, ON |
| William | Davies | Davies Office Refurbishing, Inc. | Albany, NY |
| Bryan | Eastman | Hitchcock Design Group | Chicago, IL |
| Edwin | Lim Tze Meng | structural engineering student | Singapore |
| Victor | Wolbrink | Wolbrink Architects | Chicago, IL |
| Miguel | Elliot | ChiCobCo | Chicago, IL |
| Rene | Romero |
| Robert | Vierow |
| Heather | Wiskes |
| Bate | Blair |
| Jeremy | Poling |
| Robert | Nutter |
| Scott | Sylvia |
| Bernard | Hasten |
| Allen | Ward |
| Amy | Carpus |
| Meredith | Powell |
| Megan | Scott |
| Margaret | Parsons |
| Stephen | Hamstra |
| Clark | Wilson |
| Debra | Callaway |
| Paul | Kephart |
| Tiffney | Tyng Gulick |
| Lois | Vitt Sale |
| Renier | Schepers |
| Catherine | Wilt |
| Susan | Long |
| Erik | Henson |
| Keven | Graham |
| Eric | Wiskes |
| Lori | McCall Vierow |
| Daniel | Kanow |
| Cathryn | Barret |
| Darrell | Garrison |
| Gus | Reid |
| Kang | Kiang |
| Shannon | Criss |
| James | Norstrom |
| Rich | Gorrill |
| Jill | Paskoff |
| John | White |
| Phil | Franco |
| Kate | McNichols |
| Monte | Ypma |
| Robert | Hoang |
| Guy | DiVosta |
| Heather | McIntire |
| Allison | Goldman |
| Todd | Crandell |
| Doug | Kot |
| Donnie | Brown |
| Bruce | Fowle |
HI- I am a mechanical engineer at UW-Madison and stopped by your booth but didn’t have a business card. Also, I am trying to figure out what you offset at GreenBuild. You said you offset the folks that stopped at your booth but what part of stopping by your booth did you offset? Please clarify so that I may understand how people use offsets in marketing claims. Thanks. Todd
Hi Todd,
Thanks for stopping by the booth, and thanks for your interest in our carbon offset program. As you mentioned, we purchased offsets on behalf of people that stopped by our booth. Every one of those people has a carbon footprint – for the transportation they take, the energy used to produce the food they eat, the clothes they wear, and the electricity they use at home, work, and school.
While many people are taking what steps they can to reduce their carbon footprint, they will still have some impact, it’s an inevitable part of living in our society. So even if they walked to Greenbuild to see our booth, overall they are still responsible for contributing to the gases warming our global atmosphere.
We simply counted all the people that stopped by, purchased as many tons of carbon as we could afford, and divided by the number of people. This is how we arrived at the figure of 600 pounds for each of the participants, which is roughly equivalent to the Co2 emitted by 2 full tanks of gas in a regular car, or a plane ticket from New York to Chicago.
Does that help clarify?
Thanks again Todd. Hope to see you next year in Boston!
Andy