EarthBoost

Frequently Asked Questions

• How much will it cost our company?

  It's difficult to know without you adding your staff and business expenses, since all companies are different. To give you a starting point, the U.S. average per-capita emissions in 2011 was 17 tonnes ^[1], and the offset organizations we work with charge around $10 / tonne ^{[2] [3]}. So, you could expect to pay about $170 per employee per year.

  The emissions per company vary wildly depending on flights and mileage driven, but for an estimate, you can assume half of your employee emissions roughly equal your corporate emissions.

  [# employees] x $170 x 1.5 = Total estimate

• Why should I offer this to my employees, and why does this matter?

  If you care about climate change and want to do something about it, then EarthBoost matters. If you believe that we must act immediately to tackle the current and oncoming problems that climate change brings, then EarthBoost is a wonderful way to start.

  All businesses in the modern world currently rely on the fossil fuel infrastructure to run. It's our environmental and ethical responsibility to reduce our emissions as low as possible, and offset what we can't. EarthBoost is an easy and enjoyable way to do the offsetting part.

  EarthBoost can magnify one person's impact by offsetting their employees' and coworkers' emissions. Through education, awareness, games, rivalry, and potential monetary rewards, your employees can lower their emissions while understanding the issues of climate change, and are enabled to take action on their own.

• Do we get anything for joining?

  When you join and enroll your company (for free), you're given an administrative account to add employees to EarthBoost. Each employee you add is given an account where they can calculate their own CO₂ emissions. Your company also gets a free website showing your corporate offsetting for each year you offer this benefit.

  For companies that make it into the Canopy Club or Forest Protectorate, we send a small medalian to each employee commemorating their offset achievement for the year. Finally, your company will receive carbon offset certificates for all projects you choose to donate to. These donations are tax deductible and you'll receive receipts for your tax filings.

• I'm worried about climate change; how does this help?

  The absolute best way that EarthBoost helps is by magnifying your personal impact in offsetting carbon emissions. It can be personally gratifying and uplifting to recycle, compost, reduce our own energy use, or donate money to a reforestation project, but it can become very daunting when we realize that we're just one of millions of people who may not be doing anything. Combine that with the unknowns and potential impact that climate change can have, and it can breed worry.

  EarthBoost is an easy way for someone passionate about fighting climate change to expand their impact by the size of their company. One motivated person can leverage corporate responsibility to offset the fossil fuel emissions for everyone at their workplace. This can allay our fears by proving that one person can make a profound difference towards a seemingly insurmountable problem. It's possible and a lot easier with EarthBoost.

• How does this help lower my employees' emissions?

  One of the biggest problems that we face with climate change is convincing people that it's a problem they should care about. A major reason why people don't care is that they're unaware of the risks and science behind it, don't think there's anything they can do, or don't believe that humans have anything to do with the changing climate. These three awareness hurdles are all just education-related problems.

  With EarthBoost, you have a very easy way to disseminate information about climate change through the various resources and educational content we provide, and through the email communication you can enable us to send to your employees. Knowledge of how much we're individually emitting, what products we can upgrade to cut back on energy use, the benefits to composting and recyling, and a number of other topics can allow your employees to lower their emissions while gaining knowledge.

  EarthBoost even provides a very simple checklist of actions for each employee to get started doing things. We'll send them reminders and clear benefits that those actions provide.

• How does this help me when hiring new employees?

  Many, many people care about the environment, but when asked about climate change, the sentiment is often that they don't know or don't feel as if there is anything they can do. By providing EarthBoost as a benefit to your employees, you're advertising to all job-seekers that climate change is something your business cares about, that you're carbon neutral, and that just by being a part of your company anyone can also be carbon neutral.

  You have a chance to directly appeal to all of the people that care about this issue but feel powerless. You're able to show through actions, not just words, that you are a thoughtful organization that cares about your impact on the Earth. This can have a profound effect on potential employees, and can even be enough to convince someone to accept an offer or to reach out to you for employement.

• What is the free website we get when joining?

  All businesses can opt into have a public profile on EarthBoost displaying their corporate and employee emission totals for the year. This page also shows the amount of carbon offsets purchased, the number of trees planted, the projects that you've helped fund, and any other offset certificates and donations that you, your company, or you staff have purchsed or attained over the year.

  The website is hosted on EarthBoost's servers, but through DNS settings you can have it displayed through your own domain. As an example, you could have green.yourcompany.com display your EarthBoost profile. This is an optional feature that you can disable at any time.

• What are the Canopy Club and the Forest Protectorate?

  Any business that offsets 10% of their net corporate and employee carbon emissions receives the distinct status of being a Forest Protectorate member. You can think of this as an award or achievement that your company can attain each year. Forest Protectorate members receive a small medalian commemorating their offset achievement for the year.

  The Canopy Club is the EarthBoost Street Team. Anyone is free to join, and you'll get sent a starter pack upon signing up. Once a member, you'll receive assignments to do things like "upgrading to LED bulbs", or "switch to a renewable energy provider."

  There are fun ways to participate and show off to others what you've accomplished. The Canopy Club is fun for kids or adults.

• How do you price carbon emissions?

  EarthBoost works with a short list of carbon offsetting organizations. Right now there are three: Carbon Offsets to Alleviate Poverty (COTAP), The Conservation Fund, and Bonneville Environmental Foundation. These are wonderful charities that go to great lengths to ensure that the carbon offsets they provide are of the highest quality.

  COTAP publishes a very detailed Transparency Report^[4] outlining their disbursals and why they price carbon the way they do.

  The Conservation Fund ^[5] devotes 96% of its annual budget directly to conservation programs and just 1% to fundraising.

  The Bonneville Environmental Foundation ^[6] is an entrepreneurial 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that has kept a combined total of more than 9.5 million metric tons of carbon from the atmosphere.

• How do you calculate employee and corporate emissions?

  EarthBoost uses the exact same calculating methodology that Carbonfund.org uses. They have a wonderful explanatory outline with details about how they calculate emissions. These numbers are used in the EarthBoost carbon calculator and you're encouraged to read this page as it contains a plethora of interesting information about emissions.