Bluewater Adventures and Spirit of the West Adventures went carbon neutral this year, the first companies of their kind to do so.
"We decided that to be a responsible and sustainable business, and to really call what we do ecotourism, we had to do a lot more than recycle," says Breanne Quesnel of Spirit of the West, a sea kayaking tour operator based on Quadra Island near Campbell River. "We had to make our operation as sustainable as possible and part of that was becoming carbon neutral." This sentiment is echoed by Bluewater adventures, whose owner Randy Burke operates a beautiful sailing ship on the B.C. coast.
Gong carbon neutral doesn't mean the companies have eliminated all their carbon emissions. Rather they have worked to eliminate or reduce as much as they can and for the remainder they have purchased carbon offsets. Carbon offsets are like buying shares in projects that remove future carbon emissions, with two important caveats: the projects wouldn't happen without the financial support and the amount of carbon eliminated is quantifiable.
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