Press Room Archives
The Offset Project participates in open house and takes the food waste collected to this anaerobic digester.
The Offset Project enters its fifth year with a new focus on ways to trade environmental credits.
Posted: 9/25/2012 Monterey County Weekly
As Monterey Bay businesses work to reduce their carbon footprints, the idea of buying renewable energy credits can feel a little ephemeral.
“Oftentimes, people have concerns about renewable energy credits because it just seems as if their money goes into the ether,” says Max Perelman, a senior project manager at BuildingWise, which guides clients through LEED certification.
Homegrown nonprofit The Offset Project, which is on the verge of celebrating its fifth anniversary, has set its sights on making that sustainability more concrete.
The organization is known for its work helping cut waste at myriad special events in the area. “In our last five years, we’ve gone from pretty much nothing to being able to partner with, well, I can’t think of a venue right now that we’re not involved with,” says Kristin Cushman, The Offset Project’s founder and executive director. Cushman rattles off a list of venues that includes Big Sur International Marathon, Mazda Raceway-Laguna Seca, the Monterey Jazz Festival, the Independent Marketplace and the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. ((Disclosure: Kristin Cushman is married to Weekly publisher Erik Cushman.)
“I am proud that we’ve been able to have that kind of impact on our community,” she says. “We’re serving a need that wasn’t really being fulfilled.”
Forecasting the next five years, The Offset Project is looking to help the business community in the same way it’s tackled special events.
“We feel that we live in such a destination market, and sustainability is so prevalent in our market,” she says. “Businesses and special events need to reflect those same values they see in our community.”