[Foundation-l] WMF-projects: Carbon neutral/low/aware website?

[Peter Halasz]

You frame the situation in an odd way. As going carbon neutral is
somewhat altruistic, it would take a fairly superficial or image
conscience organisation to seek direct benefit. Let's frame it a
different way. If you were a board member of a chemical plant that
dumped heavy metals into the local creek you could also be asked
"what's in it for us to not do this? Why should we stop polluting?
Just to feel good?"

Well we are dumping chemicals: greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
So do we walk away from the mess we've made? We need to act
responsibly and reduce our emissions. The cost of electricity does not
factor in its environmental impact and we need to consider that. It's
part of the WMF's triple bottom line.

As discussed, to begin with we can ask donors if it's ok to use part
of their contributions to offset our emissions.

Peter Halasz
[[user:pengo]]

On 7/8/07, effe iets anders <effeietsanders at gmail.com> wrote:
> {{OFF-TOPIC}}
>
> Instead of discussing whether the greenhouse effect is really based on
> CO2-emissions, what renewable resources are, what the latest
> developments are for nuclear plants, I think we should consider the
> following questions:
>
> * What are the benefits for the Wikimedia Foundation?
> ** Good Feeling
> ** Good Publicity
>
> * What are the disadvantages for the Wikimedia Foundation?
> * It costs money
> * It might damage the neutrality of the projects if announced publicly
> * Possibly problems with the tax status (might have to be checked)
>
> If anybody has to add possible advantages or disadvantages, please do
> so. I capture the future for our children etc under "Good Feeling",
> please read that in the broadest sense of the word. (we are talking
> about an organization here, so it might be about feelings of it's
> board, staff, volunteers etc)
>
> Thanks for the move to on-topic.
>
> BR, Lodewijk
>
> 2007/7/7, Peter Halasz <email at pengo.org>:
> > If people are still interested in looking into providers of carbon
> > offsets, "Clean Air-Cool Planet" has evaluated 30 offset providers.
> > (CA-CP is a science-based, non-partisan, 501(c)3 non-profit). Looks
> > like a good starting point.
> >
> > http://www.cleanair-coolplanet.org/ConsumersGuidetoCarbonOffsets.pdf (1
> MB)
> >
> > Peter Halasz
> > [[User:Pengo]]
> >
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> >
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