The Scoop on We Are Neutral: Carbon, Climate and a Bonnaroo Ticket Giveaway

If you’re planning on traveling this summer, you could leave a huge carbon footprint behind. We Are Neutral could be your solution.

        We Are Neutral is an environmental non-profit based out of Gainesville that work to create meaningful carbon offset programs.

        Carbon offset is the practice of doing positive things in order to offset the negative impacts we have on the planet every day by creating pollution. We can measure this impact through the number of carbon emissions being put out into the atmosphere.

        Most things we do have an impact, said Anna Sampson the director at We Are Neutral. Practices like traveling by plane have the worst impacts, but things as small as leaving your lights on when not using them can be harmful.

        “Everything has a carbon footprint,” Sampson said. “We can offset their carbon footprint making them carbon-neutral.”

One way they offset the carbon emissions is by planting trees, and lots of them. Sampson said that so far, they’ve planted 50,000 trees with the Alachua Conservation Trust, Inc.

Their carbon offset programs are not just for individuals, but also businesses, music festivals and even the University of Florida.

        We Are Neutral is the reason why UF has the first carbon-neutral athletic program in the country, Sampson said.

        Another notable client they have acquired is the popular music festival Bonnaroo. They have been the official carbon offset partner of the festival for seven years, Sampson said.

        Each year they have had the opportunity to bring 18 members of the We Are Neutral team to set up a booth in the heart of the festival and give attendees the opportunity to offset their carbon footprint of traveling to Bonnaroo.

“It’s a really great opportunity for all the attendees to learn about the impact,” Sampson said. “You know, a lot of times we fly and drive and we just don’t think about it. So, we make sure people understand there are consequences to our actions, and then we give them a really simple solution on how they can take responsibility for that.”

Their solution is to donate $5 to We Are Neutral, who will work to turn these profits into meaningful offsets of their carbon footprints. By donating $5, the festival-goers are also entered into a contest where two lucky winners can score free Bonnaroo tickets to the festival next year.

        This is their third year doing the contest, and last year they added another contest that anyone can enter, not just those attending Bonnaroo. This new contest is all online, and two more Bonnaroo ticket winners will be announced for the upcoming festival instead of the following year.

        They are continuing the contest this year and after entering all contest participants can get extra entries by spreading the message of We Are Neutral on social media accounts. This can be through liking their Facebook page, sharing a video about carbon offsets and more.

        “It’s a wonderful opportunity, and the more that you spread the word about what We Are Neutral is doing and about climate change — the more entries you get,” Sampson said.

        Though not everyone can win the contest, it will hopefully bring a widespread knowledge of the topic due to the sharing of posts online and educate people on what they can change in their everyday lives this summer to help reduce their carbon footprints.

        “I think people were really excited to be engaged in what we were doing, knowing that they were supporting a really good cause and at the same time you get rewarded for it by potentially winning a pair of Bonnaroo tickets,” Sampson said.

        According to Sampson, some of the easiest changes that you can make this summer are things that you probably didn’t even know had an impact. These can include:

1.      Carpooling with friends instead of taking multiple vehicles
2.      Skip the burger — Beef is responsible for creating half of all greenhouse gas emissions.
3.      Packing food in reusable containers rather than plastic bags
4.      Don’t buy plastic bottles, use reusable ones instead. If you’re going to a music festival, there’s probably refilling stations!
5.      Ditch the straw — Millions of plastic straws are becoming waste each day.

“Make teeny tiny changes in your life, and celebrate them big,” Sampson said. “If you skip the burger one night, that’s changing the world.”

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