Productivity Portfolio

New Web Server and Buying Carbon Offsets

This week we upgraded our web server. I’ve noticed a steady increase in our traffic so it was time to upgrade. At the same time, I thought I’d buy some carbon offsets. The objective was to make this site carbon neutral by buying carbon offsets.

Carbon offsets are a way of countering the effect that you or your equipment may have on global warming. The money you spend on offsets is used for various energy projects. Based on the specs and location of a device, various groups are able to find out the carbon footprint. In my case, TerraPass estimated our web server in Utah emits 4292.64 pounds of carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions or about 8x the amount of my desktop computer in California. One reason web servers are higher than PCs is they’re always powered so you can view this site. The server also requires more power.

Saving Catalogs and Trees

I know the heading sounds contradictory, but it’s all in the timing. This tip comes courtesy of Buzz Bruggeman who is CEO of ActiveWords, one of our favorite productivity apps for automating tasks and programs.

The next several weeks you’ll probably get an influx of catalogs. Take the non-essential ones and save them in a pile. Then go to a site called Catalog Choice and create an account. The site allows you to choose which catalogs you no longer wish to get. It helps if you have your account number from the catalog label. The process is easier than trying to track down the information for each company. For other tips, you can review our previous article on how to get off mailing lists.