General Electric's carbon-cutting credit card.
General Electric is rolling out a new kind of credit card. The My Earth Rewards MasterCard offers users the chance to get carbon offsets as rewards instead of the more traditional cash back or consumer goods. Users can also opt for half a percent of their purchases to go environmental efforts and get the other half in cash.
It's not a global first. There are credit cards like this in Europe. And it's not winning unanimous praise. As this story shows, critics point out that GE is setting up a means of getting consumers to pay to offset some of the carbon dioxide GE products help create.
Still, it's a relatively painless way to get people to think about cutting carbon dioxide as part of their daily routine. We hope the plastic they use to make the card is from recycled sources.
silvester
I see the potential of carbon credit but we need transparency. An out of the box example might be. I pay for offset for the GE from my bus. But the offset is use to pay for more personal use of hybrid cars. There is less GE in the air but I doubt that people would agree on the effectiveness of the example/
Eileen Kinley
Carbon offsetting is being touted almost everywhere now.
Want to fly somewhere? no problem, just buy an offset.
Why did I even bother buying those CFLs?? It is quickly reaching the point where I will consider JUST buying carbon offsets without bothering to change my lifestyle any further (may even revert to some previous actions).
Another concern is that the focus on carbon offsetting diverts needed attention from the larger problem of overall sustainability.
The WWF Living Planet Report 2006 cites 1.8 global hectares per person as the sustainable target for our overall environmental footprint (in 2003 numbers) - and this ignores the needs of wild species. I am not at all sure that schemes such as the GE credit card will help us meet this target. While a large percentage of western consumers' footprint is CO2, even if we cut it out entirely, Canadians' and Americans' footprint would be over 3 hectares/person.
Using any credit card to purchase more unsustainable stuff won't 'cut' it.