welcome: please sign in

The following 466 words could not be found in the dictionary of 7 words (including 7 LocalSpellingWords) and are highlighted below:
09offsets   ability   about   According   according   achieve   acquired   actual   actually   Adam   add   additional   Additionally   adopt   advertising   all   allows   also   Alternatively   always   amount   an   and   anything   approach   are   around   as   As   Asks   assuming   at   At   attitude   available   average   Background   based   Baseline   be   became   because   become   begin   behalf   benefit   benefits   best   better   Bettis   between   bought   bragging   Builders   business   but   buy   Buying   buying   by   c99a2478e261e8eb   calculate   calculations   calculator   can   Carbon   carbon   carbonfund   Carbonfund   ceased   certificate   certificates   certified   certify   charges   charitable   Chlipala   claim   clean   cleanenergy   coal   code   com   comments   commodity   Community   comprehensive   computer   Concern   conscious   conservation   conserve   consist   consume   consumed   consumer   consumers   contains   Cool   coop   Coop   cooperative   cooperatives   corporate   cost   costs   could   creating   credits   crowded   Cs   current   currently   David   deal   dealing   defines   defining   dell   Dell   direct   directly   dirty   discipline   discussed   displacing   documents   doing   don   donate   donated   donation   done   draft   draw   easier   economically   ecycling   efficient   ei   electrical   electricity   electronics   emc   emissions   emitting   en   encoded   end   Energy   energy   Ensure   envir   Environmental   environmental   environmentally   epa   epawaste   equal   equivalent   estimate   Estimated   ex   exact   except   excuses   extension   External   face   facility   fact   feasible   few   field   firm   first   flax   for   fossil   found   free   from   fuels   Future   gas   gases   general   generated   generic   get   gives   gov   greater   greatest   Green   green   greenhouse   grid   halfway   hardware   Hardware   has   have   hemp   here   hours   how   How   hr   htm   html   http   ideally   If   if   ignores   Immediate   in   In   including   increase   incurred   internalizing   into   is   Is   it   its   January   joined   Kennedy   kind   know   landfill   large   lbs   less   limited   links   Links   live   Living   livingtreepaper   locators   Louise   lower   mailings   making   manufacturers   market   materials   matter   member   migrate   mind   Minimize   minimum   mo   Money   money   monthly   more   Moreover   most   mutant   my   Nathan   Native   nativeenergy   need   never   New   no   No   nominal   non   none   not   nothing   number   nytimes   O2   occasional   of   offer   offset   Offset   offsets   often   On   on   Once   once   One   Only   only   operations   options   or   org   other   otherwise   Our   our   page   pagewanted   paper   Paper   partner   past   Peer1   people   per   phone   policies   Policy   policy   polluting   portion   post   Power   power   powered   powering   prefer   premium   Principles   probably   products   Profiler   programs   proportionately   proposed   provide   provides   purchase   Purchasing   putting   Raleigh   rates   rather   re   real   records   recycle   recycled   Recycling   recycling   reductions   referred   rehashing   renegade   renewable   reputable   residents   resistance   resources   Resources   Responsibility   responsibility   retired   revisions   rights   rss   rssuserland   same   save   saving   savings   says   section   seen   Selling   send   servers   service   services   Seven   several   should   similar   single   small   so   social   Social   sold   solid   Some   some   sooner   sources   Spent   states   stick   Story   substance   succinctly   such   tags   tangible   than   that   The   the   their   them   then   Therefore   they   think   this   This   through   Times   tiny   to   ton   tonne   totally   tradable   tree   Tree   turbines   Two   type   unconnected   unless   up   us   use   Use   using   usually   Utilities   utility   utilization   variety   ve   volunteers   want   Watts   way   We   we   Well   Wh   when   Where   where   which   who   will   wind   Wind   with   would   wrong   www   year   yields   York   you   your   Zero   zip  

Clear message
Edit

EnvironmentalPolicy

This page contains a draft of a proposed HCoop Environmental Policy. As always, add comments or proposed revisions here.

1. Background

One of the defining SevenPrinciples of cooperatives is "Concern for Community," or more succinctly, Social Responsibility. A cooperative that ignores its social responsibility has ceased to be cooperative at all and has become a mutant, renegade firm. Environmental responsibility, then, is an extension of a cooperative's greater social responsibility.

The greatest single resistance to a solid environmental policy is the attitude that it will increase costs with no tangible benefit. In fact, often environmental discipline yields a direct cost saving, and where additional costs are incurred they are usually small for this type of business. Additionally, the ability to certify our business as green and powered by renewable energy gives us bragging rights that few other services in a crowded field can offer, and can draw in more business from environmentally conscious consumers. This is the best kind of advertising money can buy.

Moreover, the sooner we adopt a comprehensive policy, the easier it will be to stick to it, rather than doing it halfway and making excuses once we are large that we've never done it in the past.

On to the substance:

2. Power

Baseline: Zero carbon emissions, ideally from clean energy offsets.

How: Purchasing renewable energy credits or carbon offsets equal to the number of KW-hours consumed by HCoop servers. NativeEnergy defines "renewable energy credits" this way:

Where: Two of the better options I have found:

Immediate cost: between $0.05 and $0.15 per member monthly. Future cost: the same or lower, as hardware utilization rates increase, and more efficient hardware is acquired.

Estimated cost as of 2013-03: According to http://www.carbonfund.org/business-calculator, Carbonfund charges about $10/tonne, or $11/ton. According to http://www.nativeenergy.com/business-carbon-calculator.html, Native Energy charges about $13.20/ton. Therefore, unless my calculations are totally wrong, it should cost less than $100/year to offset most of our CO2 emissions.

AdamChlipala says:

The EPA's Power Profiler can estimate our actual emissions per year (Peer1's zip code is 10004). Only about 60% of our electricity is generated from fossil fuels, so according to the calculator we're emitting ~7,000 lbs of CO2 per year assuming we use ~10,000 kWh per year.

3. Hardware

Baseline: Ensure that no HCoop electronics end up in landfill.

How: At a minimum, send all hardware not sold or donated to a reputable recycling facility.

Where: The EPA links to hardware recycling resources, including recycling service locators. Raleigh, NC, where several volunteers live as of 2013-01, provides free electronics recycling to residents.

Immediate cost: none

Future cost: Selling hardware could save money. Recycling could cost some money as hardware is retired. Some manufacturers will recycle their hardware for free.

Links to computer recycling programs:

4. Paper

Baseline: Minimize use of paper. Use only post-consumer recycled/tree free paper.

Where:

DavidBettis says:

Immediate cost: none, HCoop's use of paper is currently limited to occasional mailings and corporate records. Future cost: cost savings through conservation. Paper is such a tiny portion of cost that nominal premium for recycled or tree-free paper is nothing.

5. External Resources

EnvironmentalPolicy (last edited 2013-03-07 21:59:15 by RobinTempleton)