We have purchased our REC's for our building's electricity use but have been unable to find anyone that offers carbon offsets for our natural gas use because it's so low (less than 1MMBtu a year). How do we go about fulfilling the EAc4 if we're not able to purchase these? (We are still covering 99.99% of the building's total energy use with the REC purchase but don't want to get tripped up in the review process and lose points for not having the gas usage covered.) thoughts?
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Kathryn West
LEED AP BD+C, O+M, Green Globes ProfessionalJLL
154 thumbs up
July 16, 2014 - 2:33 pm
You could probably do this $60/year. The administrative costs of writing up a contract for a 1 ton carbon offset is too high for a company to justify making that transaction. You'll probably need to sign up for a program rather than getting a contract.
Wendy Parker, LEED AP
Property Operations ManagerMetroNational
July 17, 2014 - 10:13 am
Our natural gas provider isn't Green-e certified for carbon offsets (even though they offer that monthly offset program)..will reviewers have issue with that or will an explanation re the difficulty in obtaining the offsets be sufficient you think? I did see another provider on the Green-e website that has a monthly program so I've inquired from them as well...
Kathryn West
LEED AP BD+C, O+M, Green Globes ProfessionalJLL
154 thumbs up
July 17, 2014 - 10:25 am
who is your natural gas provider? Do you have a link to their carbon offset program?
Kathryn West
LEED AP BD+C, O+M, Green Globes ProfessionalJLL
154 thumbs up
July 17, 2014 - 10:27 am
ugh the link I posted on the earlier post didn't come through. Which is silly. I don't work for that company. www.sterlingplanet.com www.3degreesinc.com offer carbon offset programs.
Wendy Parker, LEED AP
Property Operations ManagerMetroNational
July 17, 2014 - 3:00 pm
I've contacted our natural gas provider and they are not Green-e climate certified. I am talking to another company (Terrapass) about their monthly program. Do we also need to consider the backup generator diesel fuel that is burned for a short time period weekly to test the generator? Also, I noticed the EAc4 calculator says the amount of REC's purchased may not exceed the total elec use? Why is that?? What if our purchased amount (based on 3/13-3/14 usage - contract ends 3/15) exceeds current SEP amount???