We’re off to the Carbon Races and you can be on our Team!
Join our Carbon Race today, as we all do our part to reduce global warming.
Our boat, the MV Teal, runs on two twin engines that run on diesel fuel. As an organization, we are doing all we can to operate in an ecologically sustainable way but our CO2 output due to our diesel engines is hard to eliminate. We hope one day to buy an electric boat but in the meantime, we’ve come across an innovative way to help us reduce our Carbon Footprint. All the guests who joined us this year helped us with this initiative and everyone has a chance to do more as we head off to the Carbon Races, hosted by an essential local organization called Sustainable Tompkins!
In 2021 we established a new way for guests to help us reduce our overall Carbon Footprint by asking them to contribute $1 to offset the carbon footprint of their cruise. In total we raised over $3,800 with the majority of guests contributing. To them we say THANK YOU! On our recent Carbon Offset Celebration Cruise, we then donated over 50% of this money to the Sustainable Tompkins Finger Lakes Climate Fund which turns out to be enough to cover the CO2 offsets of out last 3 years of cruises.. Our donation will be used by to help local lower-income families make home energy efficiency improvements that will in turn, lessen their carbon footprints. Over the years, grants to local families to enable them to buy heat pumps and make other important upgrades to their homes have already taken 6,886 tons of carbon dioxide out of our atmosphere. The rest of the money will be used for our project to put solar panels on the boat.
To encourage more people to offset, Sustainable Tompkins is asking people to form Carbon Race Teams to see who can pull the most carbon from the air and will announce quarterly winners for both tonnage and participation. If you’ve always wondered if carbon offsets were for you, this is an EASY way to get on board! CAN YOU JOIN OUR CARBON RACE BY OFFSETTING THE CARBON FOOTPRINT OF YOUR TRAVELS THIS YEAR?
The CO2 output generated by the Tourism Industry has gained international attention. Traveling by plane, train or automobile is one of the most significant contributing factors to the global warming crisis. Any time we go somewhere for fun, family or business we are contributing CO2 into the atmosphere. Carbon Offsetting is one way for us to mitigate this impact.
Please consider joining our team by offsetting your summer travel miles – or upcoming travel, or perhaps some of the fossil fuel use in your home or business. We’re currently in 6th place locally. Let’s see if we can get to #1!
To offset, go to FingerLakesClimateFund.org and make a carbon offset based on the calculation it will make for you. When it asks you to join a team for the Carbon Races (after you pay), select our team name (Friends of Discover Cayuga Lake) and your offset will be added to our tally. Then you can also spin the prize wheel and see if you win!
Please, Join our Carbon Race today, as we all do our part to reduce global warming!