Hai. Aimeé here, wishing you a happy new year! Josquin and I are currently working on a communications plan for the Carbon Neutral Forest Fund of Auroville. We’re in the midst of developing a strategy with a couple of executions including posters and a brochure to raise awareness of the need to offset our carbon footprint. We want to communicate how everything we do, from traveling on a plane to preparing food impacts our environment and one of the best ways to offset carbons is by planting trees in Auroville. The trees here can offset up to 1 ton of CO2 in their lifetime!
In our second meeting with our “client”, Josquin and I found ourselves at Martanda’s house where he explained the start of the Auroville’s Forest Fund and the many benefits it has produced throughout the years. He took us on a tour of the Tropical Evergreen Forest and before we knew it, we were on top of the property’s water mill, over looking exactly what we are working for… a breath taking, green abyss. It was a sight I will never forget. Being up there put my work here into perspective, I feel this is the most important initiative I’ve ever been a part of.
Reducing what we can and offsetting what we can’t is the only way to sustain our environment. It’s in our hands.
Here are some practical ways to offset your carbon footprint:
1. Buy organic and local
2. Ditch bottled water
3. Unplug it!
4. Use cold water
5. Use native plant species to landscape around your home or business
Until next time, take care and “think sustainably”.
AUP Sustainable Development Practicum in Auroville, India 
Buying local and organic is frequently more carbon intensive than buying conventional from the other side of the world….
thanks josh. that’s really interesting. do you mind explaining this a little bit more?
Sure, read:
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/02/25/080225fa_fact_specter
“Researchers at Lincoln University, in Christchurch, found that lamb raised in New Zealand and shipped eleven thousand miles by boat to England produced six hundred and eighty-eight kilograms of carbon-dioxide emissions per ton, about a fourth the amount produced by British lamb. In part, that is because pastures in New Zealand need far less fertilizer than most grazing land in Britain (or in many parts of the United States). Similarly, importing beans from Uganda or Kenya—where the farms are small, tractor use is limited, and the fertilizer is almost always manure—tends to be more efficient than growing beans in Europe, with its reliance on energy-dependent irrigation systems.”
And also:
Click to access Comparative%20Study%20of%20Cut%20Roses%20Final%20Report%20Precis%2012%20Febv4.pdf
“Dutch CO2 emissions were about 5.8 times larger than Kenyan CO2 emissions” when comparing roses for sale in the Netherlands.