Climate change. It’s on the tip of the tongues of scientists around the world, hotly supported or denied in the rhetoric of politicians across America and lurking dauntingly in the minds of everyday citizens across the globe.
“Reduce your carbon footprint” is the name of the game, but the game seems increasingly difficult and the playbook seems confusing to put in action.
Gainesville startup We Are Neutral is here to help.
We Are Neutral is an environmental nonprofit that offsets the carbon footprint of, well, pretty much anything. They work together with Gainesville residents and businesses to create locally generated carbon dioxide offsets.
“Sure, you can buy carbon dioxide offsets from a windmill farm in China, but at We Are Neutral they are local and they are tangible. You can see them and touch them, so you can actually be a part of the experience of offsetting your own carbon footprint,” said Anna Sampson, the general manager of We Are Neutral. “It’s a lot more romantic.”
Carbon-inspired romance aside, there is a lot of confusion as to what it means to offset a carbon footprint and how the process works. It’s easy to associate carbon dioxide production with giant factories in some far off place belching out black smoke. We Are Neutral wants to simplify the concept and bring it closer to home.
“Everything we do has a consequence. Carbon dioxide is emitted into the atmosphere every time we drive a car and every time we turn on a light switch. There are things we can do to mitigate that from happening,” said Sampson.
The mitigation We Are Neutral employs can be as simple as planting trees to absorb carbon dioxide or as extensive as retrofitting houses. For low-income renters, the company comes in to change light bulbs, insulate pipes, clean refrigerator coils, install low flow showerheads and, perhaps most importantly, educate renters on how they can reduce their utility bills. The retrofitting has the double benefit of saving people money and saving the amount of carbon that would have been in atmosphere had We Are Neutral not been there.
“All the work we have done to save that carbon dioxide from going in to the atmosphere actually goes into a carbon bank account, said Sampson. We have a money bank account and a carbon bank account and we have a third party verifier that verifies it and then we are able to sell those carbon offsets to people that would like to be carbon neutral.”
While the main focus of We Are Neutral is to positively impact the environment, a positive company environment has bloomed as a byproduct of their work. Their shared desk table in the Launch Pad space of Infinity Hall is more reminiscent of old friends planning their next wilderness adventure than colleagues battling climate change.
Anna, who was raised in Gainesville, wants the local community to feel comfortable reaching out to her and the rest of the We Are Neutral family for help. She believes that building a sustainable life doesn’t to be a solitary burden or a drastic lifestyle change.
“We know that it is overwhelming if you don’t have the time or energy or money to be better environmentally, but that is what we are here for. We Are Neutral is here for you.”
