Several of the international conferences I attend have been considering the environmental impact of their activities and purchasing carbon offsets to help balance the effects of flying hundreds of people from around the world to a town like Camden, Maine. Pop!Tech was one of the first conferences to committ to ofsetting carbon to a carbon-negative level.
This year, Pop!Tech is working with eBay to create a “carbon market” that lets people offset their impacts from attending the conference. We all have the opportunity to log on and contribute to one of three projects designed both to counterbalance our annual carbon creation and have a social impact.
The leaders of these three projects are invited to the stage to explain their work. Stefano Merlin from the Ecological Institute of Brazil talks about his project, a fuel switching project. He’s helping factories in the northeast Brazilian Atlantic rain forest convert from burning local timber to buring sawdust, bamboo and coconut waste. They’re also helping reforest logged areas with eucalyptus and helping local farmers plant sugarcane to create new biomass.