Carbon Offsets for Your MacBook and iPad

Market analysts predict that Apple will continue its high rate of sales this holiday season, which is great news for the stylish tech giant. For the environment, however, the brisk business is cause for concern. Although the aluminum used in MacBooks and other items makes them beautiful to behold, laptops with those metal shells apparently generate 42 percent more greenhouse gas emissions than their plastic counterparts. The lifetime emissions of a 15-inch MacBook Pro, for instance, are about the same as a one-way flight from Seattle to Japan.

Belgrave Trust wants to help reduce the impact of our computers by selling carbon offsets for laptops and other devices. Like a Terra Pass for the tech world, the company funds clean energy projects around the world—from developing wind power in Gujarat, India, to addressing the pollution seeping from abandoned coal mines in Nottinghamshire, England.

---

Using Belgrave's calculator, you can determine what it will cost to offset any number of products you own. For $10, you can neutralize the carbon footprint of a MacBook's entire lifespan. You also get a sticker that fits nicely over your Mac display, hinting to anyone who sees your laptop that you've offset its emissions.

"When people think of their personal impact on the environment the first thing they usually identify as the most intensive is flying," said Nick Baily, Belgrave Trust's founder. "But the reality is that everything we use in our lives has a direct impact on energy usage and climate change. By identifying ways for people to do something about their personal impact, they can still have things that make their lives better while also helping solve pressing environmental issues."

If you can't afford to give that special someone a new iPad for the holidays, perhaps you can help them make up for the impact of their current one.