Filed under: Green Culture, BMW, Carbon Offset, On Two Wheels, Green Daily, Europe/EU, China

Swiss citizens Mark Dembitz and Clarisse Von Wunschheim are planning to ride their BMW F 650 GS motorcycles from Beijing to Istanbul to drum up awareness of global climate change. Along the way, the duo will stop at schools and universities to “teach children and students about global warming, motivating them to join us in being aware of their impact on the environment and in making small changes to their lives that will contribute towards a better and cleaner world for everyone.”

Of course, traveling nearly 10,000 miles (16,000 kilometers) across eight countries on a pair of motorcycles will generate quite a bit of carbon emissions. Don’t worry, the duo has a plan to keep things under control. “We will be keeping an accurate log of daily time and distance traveled as well as fuel usage, and the quantity and quality of petrol,” Mark said. “Based on this data, we will be able to approximate the quantity of carbon dioxide we emit along the ride. We will then secure credits to offset our carbon emissions.”

Mark and Clarisse plan to start their journey on May 4th. Click here for their official website, which they’ll update during their travels.

[Source: Going Global via BMW Motorrad Blog]

Two BMW riders plan a carbon-neutral motorcycle adventure originally appeared on Autoblog Green on Wed, 08 Apr 2009 14:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Hyundai, Carbon Offset

Last fall, Hyundai announced that for every Genesis sedan sold during the 2009 model year it would make carbon offset grants equivalent to the CO₂ emissions of those cars. Six months into the program, Hyundai Motor America is now paying out the first award grants totaling over $100,000. Three grants of $35,000 each are going to programs in Peru, Mozambique, and Kenya. The Peruvian project is meant to battle deforestation in the Alto Mayo Protected Forest while new trees are being planted in Mozambique to rehabilitate forests that have already been damaged. The Kenyan project will employ over 100 people re-planting trees in a threatened rain forest.

Hyundai is working with CarbonFund.org to identify and fund worthy projects. The program will continue through the 2009 model year and is expected to offset over 93,000 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide. The press release is after the jump.

[Source: Hyundai]

Continue reading Hyundai Genesis sales pay for forest preservation and restoration projects

Hyundai Genesis sales pay for forest preservation and restoration projects originally appeared on Autoblog Green on Fri, 01 May 2009 14:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: SMART, Carbon Offset

Smart officially began selling the tiny fortwo in the U.S. market in January 2008 and by the end of that year 24,622 examples had been sold. To celebrate, the U.S. distributor is teaming up with conservation group American Forests to plant an equal number of trees. The trees will go into the Cache River State Natural Area 150 from St. Louis. Since the gas-fueled U.S. fortwo has unexceptional fuel economy for its size (33 city/41 hwy for the coupe), a little bit of carbon offset certainly can’t hurt. Smart USA will also continue the program for 2009, planting trees for each car sold.

[Source: smart USA]

Continue reading smart USA celebrating its first year by planting trees

smart USA celebrating its first year by planting trees originally appeared on Autoblog Green on Wed, 01 Apr 2009 10:48:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Green Culture, Ford, Carbon Offset, Green Daily, Pacific Region, Racing

Regardless of your view on global climate change, you must admit that the issue of carbon emissions has become a hot topic over these last few years, and automobiles have taken the brunt of the criticism. Celebrities often seem to be leading the low-emissions charge, or they at least like to appear that way by driving fuel sippers like the Toyota Prius or sometimes the fully electric Tesla Roadster. Not this time. Eric Bana, star of box office productions like Hulk and Troy, is apparently quite the gearhead, and he’s also concerned enough with the environment to offset all the carbon emissions of his upcoming new flick, Love The Beast.

The title character of the new movie is an Australian Ford Falcon coupe from 1973 - hardly a bastion of clean motoring - that was modified to take part in the Targa Tasmanian Rally. Bana’s production company hired a team of specialists to calculate the carbon emissions spent by the crew in the making of the film, and the appropriate number of trees will be planted to equal it all out.

[Source: Reuters]

Eric Bana offsets carbon emissions of new film, “Love the Beast” originally appeared on Autoblog Green on Tue, 24 Feb 2009 19:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Carbon Offset, Green Daily

We haven’t ever seen any specific statistics outlining the carbon emissions from car crash and car chase sequences filmed for movies or television, but it can’t be good. In our current environmentally-aware global climate, movie and television studios must realize that their actions will be scrutinized, so it’s not surprising to see a growing number of productions making attempts to offset their carbon emissions.

Shortly after hearing that Eric Bana’s new flick Love the Beast would be going carbon neutral, news comes in that Fox will be offsetting the carbon emissions from the popular television show 24. To lessen the environmental load further, cast and crew members have switched to hybrid shuttle vehicles, trucks used by Fox will use a 20 percent biodiesel blend, motion sensors will turn lights on and off and clean energy credits will be purchased from wind farms in India.

Stars like Kiefer Sutherland will record public service announcements urging fans of the show to lessen their own environmental impact. Why 24? According to Howard Gordon, executive producer of the show, “We are arguably the worst possible offender, which is why, in a way, it made sense to start with us. If we can do it, anyone can.”

[Source: NY Times]

Fox’s 24 to go carbon neutral originally appeared on Autoblog Green on Tue, 03 Mar 2009 16:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Hyundai, Carbon Offset

Hyundai took a big step upmarket in 2008 with the launch of its new Genesis luxury sedan. For now, the Genesis is only available with a choice of V6 or V8 engines but in keeping with Hyundai’s new Blue Drive strategy, the company has decided to do something about the Genesis emissions. Hyundai has decided to buy carbon offsets from CarbonFund.org that will cover the first year’s worth of emissions from all 2009 model Genesis sedans. Based on current sales projections, the company expects that to amount to about 93,170 metric tons of CO₂. The money from the carbon offset payments will be used to permanently preserve and re-forest 3,000 acres of Brazilian rain-forest land. Hyundai is by no means the first manufacturer to do this and it likely won’t be the last. The Hyundai press release is after the jump.

[Source: Hyundai]

Continue reading Hyundai to offset CO₂ emissions of 2009 Genesis sedans

Hyundai to offset CO₂ emissions of 2009 Genesis sedans originally appeared on Autoblog Green on Mon, 24 Nov 2008 07:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Etc., Carbon Offset, AutoblogGreen Exclusive, Green Daily

Need a quick little something to do during your lunch break? The EcoDriving game from the Auto Alliance has been up since September and AutoblogGreen readers have managed to - as a team - come in fifth place in the overall rankings. To mark our/your ecodriving skills, the Auto Allliance has paid to offset the carbon emissions of an “average sized car” for a year in our name. Thanks, y’all.

Now, a quick look at the EcoDriving leader board shows that Wonkette Readers are pretty untoppable in first place, but I think we can move up from fifth, don’t you? I think it’s doable to overtake the Political Wire Readers and maybe even TPM. Got a few minutes? Remember to read the tips about emptying the trunk and pumping up the tires before setting out on your journey.

[Source: Auto Alliance]

Thanks, team! AutoblogGreen takes fifth in EcoDriving challenge originally appeared on Autoblog Green on Thu, 11 Dec 2008 11:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Land Rover, Carbon Offset

While Land Rover does make some concept vehicles that would be cleaner than their current production vehicles (see the LRX and the recently-unveiled Freelander 2 TD4_e), one of the company’s longstanding policies to reduce the impact that their vehicles have on the environment is to offer carbon offsets (read more here and here). Today, Land Rover expanded its two-pronged strategy to include a new offset program in the Middle East - this one good for the first 72,000 kilometers put on a new vehicle, plus the CO₂ created when the vehicle was manufactured. Currently, Land Rover’s offset program operates in France, The Netherlands, Belgium, Norway, Sweden, Austria and some parts of the U.S. More areas will sign up later this year. All of Land Rover’s offset projects are managed by Climate Care.

[Source: Land Rover]

Continue reading Land Rover keeps on chuggin with carbon offset program

Land Rover keeps on chuggin with carbon offset program originally appeared on Autoblog Green on Thu, 09 Oct 2008 17:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Chevrolet, Carbon Offset, Green Daily

Who says Corvettes drivers don’t care about the environment? There seems to be a slight clustering of Corvette-related news on ABG recently - from the Z06 winning the MPG Marathon to the Corvette C6R winning the first ever GT class of the ALMS Green Challenge - and today we bring you a report from the Looking Glass Corvette Club from Highland, Illinois and the Original Corvette Club of St. Louis. These Corvette fans drove on over to Mid America Motorworks in Effingham, Illinois last Sunday. Why would they do this? To donate two Red Maple trees, named “Red Sunset” and “October Glory.”

It’s great to plant trees and all, but let’s do a little math. The drive from Highland to Effingham is 69 miles. From St. Louis to Effingham is 101 miles (these numbers courtesy of Google maps). Let’s say two Corvettes made the drive, assuming only one Corvette from each club made the drive, and got 25 mpg each. I’m being generous here and pretending it’s all highway miles. That means at about 14 gallons of gas were burned. Those 14 gallons turn into 280 pounds of CO₂. A Trees for the Future PDF tells me that a tree like the one in the picture might sequester about 25-30 pounds of CO₂ a year for the until they get some girth and height. So, the drive to plant the trees means the trees won’t have an impact on the CO₂ balance until about five years from now. Not exactly the most efficient way to clean up the air, but also not totally worthless.

Oh, wait. The announcement of the tree planting contains this quote from John Mullane, President of the Looking Glass Corvette Club: “Our donation of this tree is to commemorate the memories made at Mid America Motorworks Corvette Funfest.” Guess it wasn’t about the environment after all. Well, then I guess we can consider it a bonus that we might see a positive effect after five years.

[Source: Mid America Motorworks]

Continue reading Corvette drivers can care for the environment, too, you know, even accidentally

Corvette drivers can care for the environment, too, you know, even accidentally originally appeared on Autoblog Green on Sat, 01 Nov 2008 13:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Etc., Carbon Offset

Automobile races that try to put on a green mantle are seriously nothing new. There’s Formula 1, Formula Zero, and ALMS to name just a few. Coming soon (well, in a year) to a country near you (if you live in Denmark) is a new eco-aware speed event called the CO₂ E - Race. At least, that’s what we think this this is about. The current website is woefully short on things like details.

What the site does say is that the idea behind the CO₂ E - Race is that all of the vehicles involved must be carbon neutral. The reason for the race (and a car show) is the United Nations Global Climate Change Conference which takes place in Copenhagen next September. I expect we’ll know more well before then. After all, getting the word out is part and parcel for these things, no? Thanks to Jacob for the tip!

[Source: CO₂ E - Race]

CO₂ E - Race coming to Denmark next fall originally appeared on Autoblog Green on Tue, 23 Sep 2008 18:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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