I’m proud to announce that, as of today, Lincoln Loop, LLC has become a completely carbon neutral business.
Our footprint was pretty minimal to start. Our shared server, Olivia, only draws about 180 watts or 1 ton of CO2 a year by my best calculation. Since I don’t travel at all for business, the only other energy is the home office.
I was able to purchase wind energy directly from our local electric co-op, so the home office was easy. It will tack on about $20/month to my electric bill, but will cover most of the energy our household uses. For me, that is money well spent.
Getting the server carbon neutral was another story. Multiple conversations with the data center regarding purchasing renewable energy led nowhere. So, for now, I’ve decided to offset 2 tons of CO2 (should cover external cooling and some) via Native Energy (certificate in PDF). I’m not thrilled with the idea of offsetting, but as a last resort, it is better than nothing. When we outgrow the current setup, I will definitely be shopping around for a data center that is a bit more “green” conscious.
All said, it is costing me less than $1 a day to run a totally carbon neutral business — makes me wish I had done it long ago.
