Ever since the new millennium, the inconvenient truth for us car enthusiasts is that we are one of the largest contributors to atmospheric carbon dioxide. What’s so bad about this? Well, it causes global warming. As a car enthusiast who doesn’t want to give up their fast car, we look for other ways to help with global warming. Thankfully, Porsche is here to help with Porsche Impact.
The world is full of buzz words such as carbon footprint, carbon neutral, and zero emissions. Since we can’t stop it from happening, we are trying our best to prevent environmental damage from global warming as much as possible.
I’m not just talking about the launch of the Taycan, which has already outstripped the yearly sales 911 in pre-order interest. With a 240-mile range and 600 horsepower motor, this sporty electric vehicle is set to turn heads. Look out Tesla, here comes Deutschland.
What is a carbon offset system? Basically, by using your car you create carbon dioxide. There isn’t much you can do about this, (unless you’d rather walk) so the best way to combat it is by investing money into projects that use up your CO2 and create oxygen. There is only one living thing that does this extremely effectively; plants.
So where does Porsche Impact come in? It is a website that allows you to calculate how much CO2 (in tons) you produce in a year by entering your mileage and your gas mileage. This then gets converted into a donation amount that you’d need to give to one of Porsche’s approved projects to offset this CO2. Different projects have different associated costs. The brilliant thing behind this is that each project is overseen by a Swiss environmental investment company called South Pole. So what projects are available? Ranked in order of most to least expensive donation.
Forest Protection (Afognak)
This is a little closer to home than most of the other projects. The second-largest island on the Kodiak Archipelago off of Alaska’s Southern Coast is home to the Kodiak bear and many species of fish. It is comprised of wetlands, streams, lakes, and areas of Sitka Spruce forest. Sections that were logged before 1980 and have not regenerated successfully. Consequently, funding is needed to project manage and preserve the forest that is left.
Bio-Diversity (Zimbabwe)
Due to Zimbabwe’s unstable political environment, large areas of indigenous forest were cleared for subsistence farming. The Kariba REDD+ project preserves some of the last remaining areas of this forest, a total of 785,000 hectares connecting four national parks and eight safari reserves. This area protects several vulnerable and endangered species. In addition to this, it also employs local people and stimulates the economy.
Solar Power (Mexico)
Mexican energy production still relies heavily on oil and gas. The Aura Solar Project based in Baja California Sur capital; La Paz generates 82,000 Mega Watt hours of emissions-free energy. Investing in this will expand and maintain the power plant, while at the same time creating new jobs and stimulating the local skills economy.
Water (Vietnam)
Vietnam relies heavily on coal for power generation, which causes severe air and water pollution. By building hydro-electric power stations such as Za Hung Facility along the A Vuong River in Quang Nam province (central Vietnam), local people are given access to clean energy. Za Hung generates 30 MW and provides power to 20,000 homes. The project also upgrades the local infrastructure, reduces air pollution, and helps residents who are affected by flooding.
Conservation of the environment is crucial to our legacy as a species on Earth. Porsche does everything that they can to ensure that the production of their vehicles is carbon neutral. The rest is up to you.