Word: carbonization
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...plan is not without its flaws. For one thing, it's not easy to be certain the reductions being offered are real. "You could end up spending a lot of money on something that didn't exist, or had been sold to somebody else already," Sullivan says. Besides, carbon neutrality in itself is not going to head off global warming. The steps HSBC has taken are a good start, says Mike Childs of Friends of the Earth in London. "But what are they going to do to minimize the impact of their operations...
...Sullivan has an answer for that. Under the Carbon Management Task Force he set up in 2004, HSBC plans to boost investment in energy efficiency to cut emissions by 5% by 2007, using measures like automatically switching off staff PCs after hours. The bank will also be buying more of its electricity from green sources-the kind not generated from fossil fuels. Once it has come to grips with its own direct impacts, Sullivan suggests, HSBC may start offering advice to other firms interesting in offsetting their own emissions...
...Meanwhile, HSBC has already set its sights even higher. "There's nothing to stop us being carbon negative," says Sullivan, comparing HSBC's CO2 emissions to a monthly paycheck and offset credits to monthly expenses. "We could make purchases from time to time that will either take us back down to zero, or will take us negative for a bit and then we would come up again," he says. "Sometimes you're in credit, and sometimes you're in deficit." Now that's a bank talking...
...TIME: If atmospheric carbon is currently at 380 parts per million, how long do you think it take before aggressive action would begin to bring it down...
...TIME: Aren't regional and local action like the mayors' and governors' initiatives mostly window dressing? Can they really make a dent in carbon output if Washington doesn't do something...