How to Purchase Carbon Offsets for a Thoroughly Green Wedding

The ultimate green wedding would have a carbon footprint of zero. While that’s not really possible, it is possible, and pretty easy to purchase enough carbon offsets to equal whatever carbon footprint you create. If you think about it, almost everything we do daily generates a carbon footprint of some size, whether it’s driving a car, eating a hamburger sandwich made with a beef patty, even using a computer because of the carbon generated by the computer’s manufacturing process and because it uses electricity that is most likely generated in either an oil-burning or coal-burning power plant, although that is changing little by little. But you can celebrate your new union and your future by getting carbon offsets for every aspect of your wedding, including for your guests who have to travel from out of state or perhaps even from across the ocean from another country. Air travel is one of the biggest carbon generators there is in modern civilization, but you don’t have to settle for leaving a big carbon footprint for that travel if you negate its impact by buying carbon offsets. You can start the process by typing phrases like “zero carbon weddings” or “purchase carbon offsets” into your favorite web browser and then checking out the websites that come up in your results window.

Once you’re at the carbon offsets website of your choice, you can usually find a carbon footprint calculator of some kind with windows where you can input the total number of guests you’re expecting at your green wedding. Next, you can break down that total into the number of guests who are flying in and their average flight distances. There will also be a window where you can enter the number of guests who are driving in, and their average driving distances. You’ll also need to put in the number of hotel night stays and whether or not guests are staying in an upscale hotel. (Believe it or not, there is a big difference in the carbon footprint generated by guests who are staying in big, expensive hotels as opposed to those who are simply coming in and staying at a more modest motel like a Day’s Inn or something comparable.) You should also be able to input whether or not you’re having a rehearsal dinner, and the calculator will do the rest, coming up with a total for the number of pounds (in thousand pound increments) of CO2 that your guests’ wedding travel and hotel stays will generate. For example, if your green wedding is generating eight tons or less of CO2 then the carbon offsets will cost you a mere $80. So, keep this in mind when you’re planning your wedding. The more guests who attend and the further they travel, the bigger the carbon footprint they’ll create.

Getting Serious About Offsetting Your Green Wedding Carbon Footprint

So, you and your partner have decided that you’re really having a green wedding. You’ve done your research, talked to your green-thinking friends, and you’ve made up your minds that a green wedding is the only way to go. That’s excellent! You’ve taken your first steps along the road to making our battered old world a better place.

Now, one of the first thing to do after you’ve compiled your modestly scaled guest list is to e-mail a request to your attending guests that they find some way to offset their travel. How do they do that? First, they need to find a carbon calculator online then use it figure out how much carbon they’ll generate with their travel. Then, once they know the size of the carbon footprint they’ll generate, they can purchase carbon offsets from various sites such as: https://climatefriendly.com/ or www.GreatestPlanet.org or any of dozens of sites that offer this service. If you can afford it, you can also be proactive and just go ahead and purchase a carbon offset for your entire wedding to save your guests the trouble. If you’re having a wedding that includes, say, 16 guests, which is a reasonable number for a modest green wedding, you can purchase carbon offsets for the entire affair for about $315.00 US dollars. Doing it that way guarantees that you can stage your wedding affair with no guilt pangs, and is the act of a considerate and forward-thinking host. Of course, you can also tell your guests that you’re doing this, and then tender the invitation that they also offset their own travel at their expense. Now that makes for a truly green wedding.

For the wedding itself, you could choose to arrive at the wedding ceremony via a horse-drawn carriage. That is not only an excellent green mode of traveling, it’s also beautiful, picturesque, and doesn’t create any kind of a carbon footprint, although someone will have to clean up the horse poop afterwards. (Oh, well nothing is perfect. In real life, you always have to make some kind of compromise.) Another green wedding tip is to encourage guests to use hybrid or electric vehicles or to carpool. You can also check out green forms of mass transit, such as a limo company that only uses vehicles like a bio-diesel-powered stretch Hummer. If you don’t know where to start there, trying consulting the greenrideglobal.com website for green transportation alternatives in your area.