Carbon Self Tax
We do a German festival each year. It is one of the highlights of our calendar and it is amazing.
Leipzig is deep in Germany and whilst technically, ferry & drive, it would take at least an extra day each way. Alas due to work I'm limited in the length of time I can take off. The festival is on the edge of this in terms of time already.
It is plausible to train it, particularly if you live in London. We don't so it adds getting to London, then multiple trains to get to Leipzig. We both had back issues and tend to limit lifting and shifting of heavy cases as much as possible. It would be a very long day of lifting and shifting to do the train. Also having a rough look (eurostar is only 3 months bookable) at costs it is double plus!
Flying takes two flights. Birmingham to probably Frankfurt, Frankfurt to Halle. It is the way we did last year after the Stanstead direct to Halle stopped running. It IS plausible to train down from Frankfurt and I looked at the carbon impact versus the time (a bit slower, but not epically) and the lifting and shifting!
from Lufthansa
Birmingham -> Frankfurt - 88kg per person, per flight
Frankfurt -> Leipzig 53kg per person, per flight
They recommend a per person, €22.37 for the first flight and €13.47 for the second in guilt payment to them for 50% eco fuel (slow) and 50% trees (long) taking 10yrs to offset - You can adjust the sliders to be more eco fuel which is expensive but quicker or more trees planted which at 20years for a tree to sequester the carbon is somewhat slower.
88+53 = 141 x 2 = 282kg at €35.84 x 2 or €71.68 total
Personally the payment seems high for what you get and the results mediocre and slow.
Given previous experience with trine and my offset investing. I think i can personally do better.
Trine varies in the investments on offer, but at the time of writing the Greenlight Planet 8 investment is €100 for 1.9 ton (~1700kg) which was for a 5 year loan, thus offsetting faster and more!
€72 would get 1224kg and 282kg would only take €16.59!!!
FYI - I'm going with €105 - The €100 seems a good amount from the above example and the flights for the two of us were under half the price of the estimate of the Eurostar and German Trains to Leipzig, let alone the additional travel to London, so i'm euros in so to speak. The €5 is a interest payments from my prior investments being plowed back in!
Whilst I personally count the cost of this as a PAYMENT, so don't directly expect anything back than the carbon offset, Trine is an investment platform and it should return the amount invested after a time along with 6% interest, so after 5 years €106. It's an A- risk which is pretty safe as this goes and any returned funds will be re-invested back into the platform, thus if everything works out the carbon reduction will be ongoing too!
Whilst the above is MY idea regarding flights there is no reason that this principle could not be applied to something else. A friend recently discussed the idea of donating a proportion of his Luxury Item Purchases to charity, a new phone at £500 for example has a 10% or £50 donation to charity. I also came across this principle in Christmas food shopping, where someone was donating a proportion of the cost of their shop to items in a food bank donation. Things like this may help people to consider their actions and help others which is a definite WIN / WIN.
Edit - Due to a mistake on my part with sending funds to Trine (forgot the reference) my €100 was held up and i had to trace it through the system providing the Trine Help desk with a pdf of my transfer. The communication was great and very understanding, which is a good sign.
Alas Greenlight Planet 8 had fully subscribed. There's a Greenlight Planet 9 loan, but there's a Daystar Power 11 which is a more commercial type loan for 36 months, with 2.1 ton per €100. It's got 7% interest and a B- rating. I'm more interested in the carbon offset, which will acrue EVEN quicker, than getting the money back or interest as most schemes just take the money as payment! - So i've gone with this. I've also had some interest of €7 back so i'm plowing that back in as well, equaling 2206kg in total!
Leipzig is deep in Germany and whilst technically, ferry & drive, it would take at least an extra day each way. Alas due to work I'm limited in the length of time I can take off. The festival is on the edge of this in terms of time already.
It is plausible to train it, particularly if you live in London. We don't so it adds getting to London, then multiple trains to get to Leipzig. We both had back issues and tend to limit lifting and shifting of heavy cases as much as possible. It would be a very long day of lifting and shifting to do the train. Also having a rough look (eurostar is only 3 months bookable) at costs it is double plus!
Flying takes two flights. Birmingham to probably Frankfurt, Frankfurt to Halle. It is the way we did last year after the Stanstead direct to Halle stopped running. It IS plausible to train down from Frankfurt and I looked at the carbon impact versus the time (a bit slower, but not epically) and the lifting and shifting!
from Lufthansa
Birmingham -> Frankfurt - 88kg per person, per flight
Frankfurt -> Leipzig 53kg per person, per flight
They recommend a per person, €22.37 for the first flight and €13.47 for the second in guilt payment to them for 50% eco fuel (slow) and 50% trees (long) taking 10yrs to offset - You can adjust the sliders to be more eco fuel which is expensive but quicker or more trees planted which at 20years for a tree to sequester the carbon is somewhat slower.
88+53 = 141 x 2 = 282kg at €35.84 x 2 or €71.68 total
Personally the payment seems high for what you get and the results mediocre and slow.
Given previous experience with trine and my offset investing. I think i can personally do better.
Trine varies in the investments on offer, but at the time of writing the Greenlight Planet 8 investment is €100 for 1.9 ton (~1700kg) which was for a 5 year loan, thus offsetting faster and more!
€72 would get 1224kg and 282kg would only take €16.59!!!
FYI - I'm going with €105 - The €100 seems a good amount from the above example and the flights for the two of us were under half the price of the estimate of the Eurostar and German Trains to Leipzig, let alone the additional travel to London, so i'm euros in so to speak. The €5 is a interest payments from my prior investments being plowed back in!
Whilst I personally count the cost of this as a PAYMENT, so don't directly expect anything back than the carbon offset, Trine is an investment platform and it should return the amount invested after a time along with 6% interest, so after 5 years €106. It's an A- risk which is pretty safe as this goes and any returned funds will be re-invested back into the platform, thus if everything works out the carbon reduction will be ongoing too!
Whilst the above is MY idea regarding flights there is no reason that this principle could not be applied to something else. A friend recently discussed the idea of donating a proportion of his Luxury Item Purchases to charity, a new phone at £500 for example has a 10% or £50 donation to charity. I also came across this principle in Christmas food shopping, where someone was donating a proportion of the cost of their shop to items in a food bank donation. Things like this may help people to consider their actions and help others which is a definite WIN / WIN.
Edit - Due to a mistake on my part with sending funds to Trine (forgot the reference) my €100 was held up and i had to trace it through the system providing the Trine Help desk with a pdf of my transfer. The communication was great and very understanding, which is a good sign.
Alas Greenlight Planet 8 had fully subscribed. There's a Greenlight Planet 9 loan, but there's a Daystar Power 11 which is a more commercial type loan for 36 months, with 2.1 ton per €100. It's got 7% interest and a B- rating. I'm more interested in the carbon offset, which will acrue EVEN quicker, than getting the money back or interest as most schemes just take the money as payment! - So i've gone with this. I've also had some interest of €7 back so i'm plowing that back in as well, equaling 2206kg in total!
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