DATE: January 28, 2016
MEDIA CONTACT: Samantha Danchuk, Environmental Planning and Community Resilience Division, Broward County
PHONE: 954-519-1295
EMAIL: sdanchuk@broward.org
BROWARD COUNTY, FL - With the rise in awareness of the influences of carbon emissions to our environment, the Plan It Green Program, a local and voluntary carbon offset program intended to counterbalance carbon emissions generated by local events and visitors, has been revamped and relaunched. The Plan It Green Program allows event organizers to offset carbon emissions generated by such things as transportation, product manufacturing, and electricity used for events. Carbon build up in the atmosphere contributes to the trapping of heat on the planet.
Through the Plan It Green Program, an on-line calculator converts event activities to carbon equivalents and assigns a dollar amount based on the number of trees required in order to offset the activity.
The Program is administered and managed by Broward County's Environmental Planning & Community Resilience Division (EPCRD). Visitors, event organizers and attendees can go to the website and calculate the carbon footprint associated with events and travel and make donations to offset their share of that footprint. Program participants receive a certificate of participation and their funds support local tree planting at Plan It Green designated sites. In addition to offsetting carbon emissions, the Plan It Green program expands urban tree canopy providing more shading and cooling and creating wildlife habitats. For less than $2 per person, the average event can be Plan It Green certified while achieving local and corporate sustainability objectives and protecting the natural environment against future climate impacts.
Program partners are already recognizing the potential benefits. According to Nicki E. Grossman, President and CEO, Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau, "The LEED certified Broward County Convention Center meets the highest standard in green building leadership. Offering our visitors an opportunity to partner in the reduction of their carbon footprints is a forward thinking concept that can create a very strong, positive relationship between our visitors and our destination. For our meetings and convention attendees, the Plan It Green program will provide an opportunity to complete the link of environmental awareness, which can only serve us all well into the future."
The program builds on Broward County's commitment to reduce carbon emissions and the impacts of climate change through energy conservation, renewable energy initiatives and climate adaptation planning.
About Environmental Planning and Community Resilience
Broward County's Environmental Planning and Community Resilience Division protects, restores and enhances the quality, abundance and diversity of the County's natural resources through coordinated management efforts in five areas: water resource policy and planning, urban and natural lands management, beach and marine resources, energy and sustainability, and environmental monitoring. For more information call 954-519-1270, visit our website or follow us on Twitter.
|