Greening Bumbershoot
… then Offset
While some people considering the carbon-offset a catch-all, Bumbershoot realizes there’s a lot of work to do before we deduce our carbon debt. After we reduce, reuse, and recycle what we can, we start to look at other Festival elements that are a bit more tricky: namely, transportation. While the Festival is fortunate to attract local talent (something Seattle has a LOT of!), it also lures national and international acts to the Pacific Northwest. While we can’t eradicate their travel entirely, we can support regional projects that will eradicate an equal amount of greenhouse gases from escaping to the atmosphere in the future.
How do we do it?
- A “carbon offset” balances the impact of unavoidable greenhouse gas emissions produced. How? When you buy an offset you purchase an emission reduction credit. This in turn is money invested in a project, such as a clean energy or reforestation project, that results in less carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere than would otherwise occur.
- Bumbershoot purchases carbon credits to offset all artists’ transportation (air and ground, both to and from the Festival). These credits are purchased from NetGreen, a Northwest offset provider that offers project-based offsets. Projects that receive funding from NetGreen are designed and evaluated for carbon-reducing services not currently available without some sort of investor funding.
- In 2008, Bumbershoot offset 251.5 metric tons of greenhouse gas!
What project does Bumbershoot’s offset carbon credits support?
Bumbershoot’s offset funding will be invested in a Tillamook Bay, Oregon methane capture project, helping to create an anaerobic digester that will capture the methane emitted from up to 4,000 cows from local dairies, preventing that gas from entering the atmosphere. This is an important project because methane is a greenhouse gas 21x more potent than CO2 and once it’s captured, it can produce clean electricity for the local area.
Eco-Extra: The world’s forests act as a giant carbon sponge and are an incredibly effective defense against global warming. Every 24 hours, as much CO2 is released into the atmosphere (as a result of the rainforest losses in Brazil and Indonesia) as if 8 million people flew from London to New York City at the same time.
Here’s where you come in
Bumbershoot encourages taking alternative modes of transportation to the Festival to help reduce carbon emissions. If you must drive, please carpool! Want to act further? You can offset your travel (or a friend’s!) carbon emissions with a $2 carbon credit purchase from NetGreen 367 lbs. of CO2. In 2008, Bumbershoot fans pitched in and offset 6 tons of greenhouse gas!
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