• Most believe we are polluting the air, water, soil, and degrading the planet for our children. Some may even believe that humans contribute to global warming.

• In response, we have begun a Sustainable Development initiative. Sustainable development is often referred to as “green on steroids”, and is a pattern of resource use that meets human needs while not destroying the environment.
• Every major government department and educational institution has a sustainable development group. (Stanford’s is at http://pesd.stanford.edu/).

• Our Sustainable Development Initiative will focus on becoming Carbon Neutral by 1/1/2010. Our strategy is straightforward and has been used by such companies as Dell, Google, The World Bank, Pepsico, and the Rolling Stones on Tour.

1. Limit energy usage and emissions from transportation, buildings, and equipment.
2. Obtain electricity from a renewable energy source, either directly by generating it (installing solar panels), selecting an approved green energy provider, and by using low-carbon alternatives such as sustainable biofuels.
3. Offsetting the remaining emissions that cannot be avoided or by buying carbon credits.

• In the short term, most of our Green reductions will come from (1) and (3)
• Carbon Offsets: We’ll buy carbon offsets for our photographers’ cars beginning 10/1/08
• Carbon Offsets for YOUR car: We’ll buy carbon offsets for your car if you have to drive to the house to give us access.
• No Office Now: We were going to move into a central office. NOT NOW! The office would have generated over 30 tons of CO2, which would have required over 350 acres of forest, woodlands, etc., to offset.
• The office footprint includes all the travel to/from, office equipment, heating/cooling, the size of the concrete parking lot outside, etc.
• Over 95% of the energy required to run the office was non-electrical!
• No Office Ever: We plan to never have a central office, instead we’ll rent rooms for corporate meetings
• Over the past year we’ve written software to enable people to work wherever they want. All they need is a cell phone and high speed internet connection.
• No Office Equipment: computers serve as fax machines; we use a very sophisticated internet based Virtual PBX system that can route both calls and faxes to whoever they are intended for.
• We all turn off our personal computers at night

• No Energy Sucking, Heat Generating Computer Servers
• We use internet based services instead of in house computers and servers. Although it’s tough to calculate, the heat and energy produced by Internet based services is negligible as compared to in house machines.
• Our services include Accounting, Payroll, Voice over Internet Phone (VOIP), Virtual PBX, and others.

• Move Bits, Not Atoms
• All of our billing, banking, bill payment, etc. is done electronically. We do not receive a single paper bill, nor do we mail a single paper payment or invoice
• We will try to convince all of you to move to credit cards to help in this matter.

Buy Carbon Offsets: We will buy carbon credits from the facility below to offset what the energy that we can’t eliminate or get from renewable sources.

 Methane Biodigester - Inland Empire – Chino Basin, Cali.
Biodigesters capture the methane generated by manure and transform it into a clean, renewable energy source. Methane is a greenhouse gas that has more than 20 times the global warming potential than carbon dioxide. This biodegester operated by the Inland Empire Utilities Agency collects manure from ten area dairy farms and is responsible for reducing more than 8,000 tons of CO2e from the atmosphere every year, while also protecting the quality of the region’s groundwater. (https://secure.groundspring.org/dn/index.php?aid=8878)