Carbon Trading Part of Solution 'My Turn' by Will Raap

Thank you for your Nov. 27 editorial about the proposal from the Governor's Commission on Climate Change to develop a Vermont standard for trading carbon credits. Trading carbon credits is one part of a smart climate change strategy, and I disagree with creating a new "Vermont Green Standard." Global warming is a global problem, the biggest environmental and economic challenge we face this century.

My research shows that human activity is now emitting the equivalent of 8 billion tons of greenhouse gases annually. Seventy-five percent of these global warming gases result from industry (buildings, factories, transportation, electrical generation) and 25 percent from land-use changes (especially tropical deforestation and industrial farming). The Earth's ecosystems (forests, prairies, wetland, oceans) absorb and store about 5 billion tons of greenhouse gases each year, mostly carbon dioxide (CO2). A net of 3 billion tons build up in the atmosphere annually; this is a global problem, not only a national or state problem. So, we have two jobs:

Reduce our emissions so there is no additional net build up of CO2. Scientists now recognize we are approaching a concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere that will trigger permanent climate change. Three billion tons of CO2 added each year demand that we reduce our annual emissions ASAP. Even though it is reported Vermont has low net greenhouse gas emissions (and the accounting for this is bogus because we do not include the impact of getting food, energy, building supplies, etc., delivered to our borders), we in fact need to be an equal partner with other states and countries in reducing carbon emissions. Plus, as Germany, Japan, California and other economies are discovering, shifting to a low-carbon policy creates economic opportunity and jobs, like "green" carpenters and plumbers, energy-efficiency retrofitters, wind and solar businesses, organic farmers, ecological waste management enterprises including composting, etc.

Increase the capacity of ecosystems to store CO2. The concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere has increased by 50 percent in two centuries. Even if new emissions are controlled, climate scientists agree that we need to reduce this excess CO2. This is where a cap on carbon emissions and trading carbon credits can be valuable: to help fund storage efforts (reforestation, wetlands restoration, conversion to organic agriculture) as well as emission reduction initiatives. But before we focus on carbon credits, let's commit to reducing our emissions and measuring our progress every year. We can only manage what we can measure, and this is especially true for greenhouse gases.

If industry is the biggest source of greenhouse gases, what can business do to minimize the emissions we cause while still creating good jobs and supporting a healthy economy? Gardener's Supply is asking this question, and the answers we are getting are revealing.

This year we hired a sophisticated audit of our electrical energy use and installed new energy-saving equipment and systems resulting in immediate savings. These changes will save us nearly $50,000 per year and reduce our CO2 emissions by 100 tons per year. What if every state building also did this? Vermont would save millions of dollars and reduce carbon emissions by tens of thousands of tons each year.

We also hired another Vermont firm this year to do a comprehensive audit of our carbon emissions so we will know what our total carbon footprint is, how much we need to reduce so we can reach emissions reduction targets, and what our best strategies are to reduce or offset our remaining emissions. After we invest in energy efficiency and waste reduction we still may need to acquire carbon credits to achieve our carbon emission goals.

This, I believe, is the correct prioritization of steps for business to reduce carbon emissions. First, determine your baseline and measure your progress. Make improvements with energy efficiency upgrades, acquire new energy from renewable sources, and only then mitigate remaining emissions with carbon credits from creditable projects that employ accepted international carbon credit standards (like Gold Standard and CCBS). I believe this formula also is the right process to guide Vermont.

Will Raap of Shelburne is founder and chairman of Gardener's Supply Company.