We are working on an online carbon calculator.

In the meantime, please schedule a 15 minute phone call here.

Page coming soon.

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We help households and businesses become carbon neutral. Explore a comprehensive list of both:

1. Carbon Neutral Households

2. Carbon Neutral Businesses

• Carbon neutral households
• Carbon neutral businesses

Did you get one of our mailings?

This page explains how we try to practice what we preach, even with our mailings.

That is, we make them not only environmentally neutral but environmentally positive. Learn how below:

Table of Contents

• 100% recycled paper
• Ten trees planted for each used
• Carbon neutral mailing
• Funding model

100% Recycled Paper

First, we selected Vistaprint. 95% of the paper they print on (by spend) has FSC certification -- the highest standard of responsible forestry. It's also recognized by the Rainforest Alliance:

"The Rainforest Alliance is a network of farmers, foresters, communities, scientists, governments, environmentalists, and businesses dedicated to conserving biodiversity and ensuring sustainable livelihoods.

They are an international non-profit organization working to build strong forests, healthy landscapes and thriving communities through creative, pragmatic collaboration.

The advice of Rainforest Alliance has been invaluable to us in developing and growing our responsible forestry program."

But we went a step further...

We selected 100% post-consumer recycled paper stock. This is paper that's already been used at least once and recycled into new paper.

This recycled paper cost us 44% more than the alternative paper.

Ten Trees Planted for Each Used

But we went a step further...

Technically, we're not using trees because the paper is 100% recycled. But still. We calculated how many trees were used originally.

According to this article in the Sierra Club's magazine, it takes about eight trees to produce 1,000 - 2,000 pounds of paper. That means one tree creates on average 187.5 pounds, or 85,048 grams, of paper.

One postcard weighs 6 grams, so a tree can create about 14,174 post cards. In order to "plant ten trees for each used" we need to plant a tree for -- let's round up -- every 1,500 postcards.

The USDA Forest Service will plant a conifer seedling for $1.

Because we plan to mail 55,000 postcards, this means we need to pay to plant 37 trees.

Carbon Neutral Mailing

And we went a step further yet...!

How much carbon is emitted by mail? PitneyBowes sponsored an excellent literature review:

"Based on these data, we found that the distribution of letter mail by the Posts generates, on average, about 20 grams of CO2 per letter delivered. In addition, a survey of more than a dozen studies shows that the indicative range of CO2 emissions associated with the upstream mail piece creation process is about 0.9 – 1.3 grams of CO2 per gram of paper."

So for a postcard weighing 6 grams, we can assume it creates 7.8 grams CO2 to create it (1.3 grams of CO2 * 6 grams of paper) and 20 grams to deliver it. The total per postcard is 27.8 grams. Let's roundup and say 30 grams CO2 per postcard.

Context is everything. The average American produces 15-20 tons per year. "The US paper industry accounts for about 2% of US CO2 emissions, and direct mail is estimated to account for 0.18% of US emissions... Each time a dishwasher is used, 1.04 kg CO2 are generated... [which is equivalent to about 30 pieces of mail].

Because we plan to mail 55,000 postcards, this means we need to offset 1650 kg CO2e, or 1.65 metric tonnes.

Funding Model

It costs about $9,500 to mail 55,000 postcards. This money was provided as a 0% interest loan from 34 different people on the Kiva platform. Kiva enables anyone to make 0% interest loans to mission drive entrepreneurs around the world.

Thank you to the investors from the CNI community:

• Alli Williams
• Brian Donahue & Jan Hise
• John
• Will Ditzler
• Jonathan Green
• Mike Celentano
• Ellen Munds
• Monica Helton
• Larry Zimmer
• Nancy Moldenhauer
• Tyler Kanczuzewski
• Brian Will
• Greg
• Chris Powers
• Jeff Marks
• A few anonymous people

And thank you to the investors from the larger Kiva community:

• Tamar, a nurse in Seattle
• Richard, a Professor in Canada
• Jill, a veterinarian in Wisconsin
• Aluna, a counselor in Florida
• Kari, a nurse in Missouri
• Trent in Washington DC
• William in New York
• Diane
• Jordan
• Jessica
• Nisha
• Martin
• Alexander
• Olena
• Jon
• A few anonymous people

CNI hosted meetings for members the week of 8/30/21. We had over 100 RSVPs(!!!). This video is an edited version of the 8/31/21 presentation.

During all of the meetings, we broke into groups for small group discussion. Some audience feedback is in this video. To see all feedback from all 17 groups of members see links below video.

Response from all 17 groups to these prompts:

• What's special about CNI?
• What was most exciting about this meeting?

What are two things that make Carbon Neutral Indiana unique? The personal touch and local community.

We help people and businesses measure their carbon footprints over the phone -- not with an automated online calculator. We're not aware of any other organization that does this.

And most organizations that sell carbon offsets are for-profit. That's great, but one reason we formed as a non-profit is to intentionally nurture local community -- in person gatherings like potlucks, sponsoring local climate journalism and backyard concerts, etc.

This week, some carbon neutral households got together to enjoy each others company -- and beer. 🙂

"Before my carbon inventory, I felt a lot of existential dread about the climate crisis.

I was definitely looking forward to my meeting with CNI though. I was excited to see if I could do something practical and useful to help.

After the call -- and after everything CNI walked me through -- some things that I thought were impossible are actually achievable. I’m surprised how much more optimistic I was after the meeting.

I tend to be pessimistic about the climate crisis because it’s a systems problem. I thought individual action simply didn’t add up, but the way CNI framed it showed me that individual action does add up. It can lead to systems change.

I think most households could afford to be carbon neutral, and that some grassroots momentum will go a long way. And I think others should be carbon neutral because I truly believe we’re in a climate emergency, and our government is not interested - currently - in taking emergency action. So even though it’s largely a systems problem, best solved with policy, individuals have to step up and lead. Then hopefully the government will follow."

Do you want your household to be carbon neutral?

Measure your household's carbon footprint

Sam and Shannon Bloomquist live in Indianapolis. Shannon is a "librarian, writer/editor, floundering guitarist, breakfast addict," and Sam is a, "mobile software developer, dog owner, hiker, adventure racer, enemy of bureaucracy."

Learn more at their personal website.

Do you want your household to be carbon neutral?

Measure your household's carbon footprint

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDvua3RPYbY

We are sponsoring local climate journalism at Purdue University, thanks to David and Katie Harting. If successful, this pilot can be expanded enormously. Watch trailer:

Learn more here. Watch in-depth interviews, ready the backstory, and see articles published so far.

"One organization, Carbon Neutral Indiana, is serving as a bridge between businesses located in Indiana that want to go carbon neutral... and Indiana communities..."

Full episode: NPR - 1A

Do you want your household to be carbon neutral?

Measure your household's carbon footprint

The NPR show 1A had a 45 minute program on carbon neutrality, and they mentioned us. Here's the 1 minute clip and the full program.