A thermal image shows the energy use of cars.
Photograph by Tyrone Turner, National Geographic
What is a carbon footprint anyway?
Carbon footprint is the term generally used to describe the level of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions produced by a specific activity. Greenhouse gases include carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH), nitrous oxide (N2O), hydrofluoro-carbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), and sulfur hexafluoride (SF6). To simplify matters—and since CO2 is the most prevalent GHG—greenhouse gas emissions are expressed in terms of CO2 based on a conversion table that uses the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Global Warming Potential (GWP) factors.
How does the National Geographic Society measure its carbon footprint?
The Society has measured the carbon footprint of all of its activities, services, and products. These include:
- Emissions associated with heating and cooling of our buildings
- Any fossil fuels used to heat water, operate our kitchen, light our buildings, power all appliances, and power our computers and related tools
- All rented space occupied by NGS staff in North America
- All products we produce, including magazines, books, direct mail, CDs, television programming, film, digital media (website), NG Channel programs, etc.
- All business travel and accommodations
- All travel and accommodations booked through NG Expeditions
What is the Society’s carbon footprint?
The chart below shows the total carbon emissions for the Society’s operations. The numbers include all carbon emissions associated with the manufacturing and distribution process, including paper mills, printers and truck, rail, ocean freight, and postage.
This chart documents our total carbon footprint, and does not exclude the carbon emissions that we have offset though our wind energy program or other offsets we purchase.
How is the Society reducing its carbon footprint?
The Society is continually looking at ways to cut its own energy usage and working with its suppliers to reduce theirs.
Some of the things we have done to date to reduce our emissions:
- Purchased wind-power renewable energy credits to meet all of the Society’s electrical needs in all of its facilities in North America.
- Purchased certified offsets to offset the carbon emissions of travel booked through National Geographic Expeditions (educational excursion travel).
- Reduced our electrical consumption by 16 percent from 1997 to 2009, by eliminating excessive lighting, changing to more efficient bulbs, shutting off our computers during off hours, changing our temperature settings, shutting down boilers during off hours, closing our buildings for ten Fridays during the summer months, etc.
- Reduced our natural gas usage by nearly 10 percent from 1997 to 2009.
- Reduced our water use by more than 21 percent from 1997 to 2009.
- Eliminated all bottled water sold on our campus.
- Actively promoted car pools, working from home, and use of public transit.
- Implemented building upgrades to earn a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design for Existing Buildings (LEED EB) gold certification and to earn Energy Star ratings from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for our buildings.
- Joined Climate Leaders (EPA) and Climate Savers (WWF), committing the Society to an additional 10 percent energy reduction by 2015.
These are just some of our carbon reduction initiatives. In addition we are actively working with our suppliers (for paper, printing, transportation, postage, data storage, digital media, etc.) to find ways to reduce their emissions on our behalf. We are committed to walking the talk, to lead by example, and to thereby inspire others to care about the planet.
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