Ever felt a bit guilty as you book your holiday or business flight about its impact on climate change and your personal carbon footprint? Ideally, we should all try and cut back on air travel. However, for that flight you cannot avoid making, the Wellow Carbon Offset Fund is a wholly voluntary idea that can help turn your guilty feeling into positive local action.
You will have seen international ‘carbon offset’ schemes that, through a small payment, help offset the impact of your flight by funding rainforest protection, tree planting or similar. However, knowing how your money is actually being used is difficult to assess and some of those schemes have been exposed as having limited impact.
The Wellow Carbon Offset Fund (WeCOF) will mean you can offset your flight’s CO2 emissions secure in the knowledge it is going directly towards reducing the carbon footprint created by us in Wellow, doing things that help promote sustainability and building our community resources. (Though doing so should not encourage you to fly more – the big aim must be less flying).
How it will work is simple:
- You calculate your or your family’s flight carbon footprint and related offset payment using any recognised website e.g. https://www.clevel.co.uk/flight-carbon-calculator/
- You pay that amount (or any other sum you see fit) into the Fund.
- The amount in the Fund will be publicised from time to time and ideas/proposals invited for how it should be used.
- The money will be allocated in the best way to benefit carbon reduction and the community. Everyone who has contributed can have a say in how it is used.
How the money is used will depend on the ideas submitted, but MIGHT include (note, these are not proposals or intentions, just some examples of possible ideas):
- Solar panels on community owned/run buildings
- An electric car charger so people without off street access could swap petrol/diesel for electric
- Helping to replace oil or similar boilers with heat pumps
- Land/plant management initiatives that help reduce CO2
- Traffic reduction initiatives
So, please join in and commit today to make future contributions as you book or take your flights. Remember this is totally voluntary, and if you cannot make the full offset payment, any contribution is better than none. For more details and to ‘sign up’, contact us at WeCOF@future.wellow.org
Examples of a possible carbon offset payment (single person, return flight):
- £9.84 economy class to Ibiza
- £17.66 economy class to Athens
- £51.78 economy class to Mumbai
- £109.88 business class to New York.
Note: The Fund is being looked after by the Parish Council to ensure the money is safe, but the Parish Council have no other role in its management or operation, which will be done by a group of volunteers from the Parish.