The One Ton CO2 Project

Founded to raise awareness about global warming and support regional carbon offset efforts, the One Ton CO2 project has designed a line of t-shirts whose sale helps them offset carbon emissions. They purchase carbon offsets from the Chicago Climate Exchange, who sell credits of third-party-verified carbon dioxide reductions that have been quantified in metric tons. The One Ton CO2 project buys them, and retires one metric ton of CO2 for each t-shirt (using American Apparel's organic t's) that is sold. T-shirt owners can then register themselves online, becoming part of a community dedicated to reducing CO2 emissions. Recognizing that selling t-shirts will not save the world alone, and that conservation and reduction is as important (if not more) than offsetting, they note that by combining simple things like eating meat-free meals every other day, parking the car for 60 days this year and walking, cycling, or taking public transit instead and switching from hot to warm or cold water for every load of laundry will also collectively save a ton (literally) of CO2. So will switching two standard incandescent light bulbs to more efficient fluorescent bulbs, replacing a showerhead with a low-flow model, turning the thermostat down two degrees for one year and cutting vehicle fuel use by 10 gallons in one year, and that's just the beginning. Like cultural icons like Lance Armstrong's LIVESTRONG bracelet and the red ribbon for AIDS awareness, physical artifacts such as these have the opportunity to not only contextualize a sometimes paralyzing issue and further a global conversation about a global problem, but to help do something about it at the same time. If that helps bring more people to the fight against global warming, then it's a very good thing. ::One Ton CO2 via ::Hugg (rrichards)