Frequently Asked Questions
The EVO Tree is intended to be a fun, engaging way to give people a sense of their environmental impact and get them thinking about their daily habits and choices. While it is a simple, visual representation, it is based on the integration of several complex data models used to assess a wide range of environmental impacts.
To fulfill our planting of one tree for every registered user on the site, EVO has partnered with Trees For The Future. In honor of our site launch, we have committed to planting 100,000 trees. Since 1988, Trees for the Future has helped thousands of communities in Central America, Africa, and Asia improve their livelihoods and their environment by planting nearly 50 million trees. They calculate that these trees remove approximately one million tons of CO2 from the atmosphere each year.
We do not sell products on our site. Rather, we connect you directly with online sellers. Our focus is on aggregating and presenting valuable content along with green products and services. Our intention is to make it easy and accessible for everyone to make better choices and go green.
Easy. Recommend a business with your website address. One of our staff will review your site and determine the best way to integrate your products into EVO.com.
The EVO system is very accurate at categorizing products, businesses and services. But no system is perfect and we welcome any feedback to help us make improvements.
A carbon footprint is an approximation of the total amount of carbon dioxide generated by an individual or a business in one year. The primary drivers of a carbon footprint for an individual include food consumption, home energy use, driving habits and travel. An average American carbon footprint is about 22 tons of CO2 per year while the average sustainable limit of CO2 emissions per capita is roughly 2.2 tons of CO2 per year.
The purpose of a carbon offset is to offset the impact of a carbon footprint by reducing the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere now or in the future. Planting trees or fertilizing plankton are two ways an individual or a business can directly reduce the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere thereby offsetting his/her or its impact on the environment. Investing in renewal energy sources is a way to reduce carbon production in the future. Carbon offsets are purchased and are generally arranged by either commercial or not-for-profit carbon offset providers.
Absolutely. The average American generates almost 10 times the average per capita sustainable limit for carbon dioxide emissions. While carbon offsetting is better than doing nothing, it’s not enough. There are not enough natural resources, like land to plant trees, to compensate for the excessive amounts of carbon produced from our consumption. And while investing in renewable energy is a very good idea, its impact is in the future and it is speculative. The one thing we know for sure is that each person is capable of significantly reducing his or her own carbon footprint. The collective impact (300 million people in the US alone) on the environment would be tremendous.
Convincing someone to overhaul his or her life in a day isn’t going to happen. But EVO believes that offering people green alternatives to everyday products and services along with a tangible measurement of both their individual and collective impact on our ecosystem will engage consumers to make progressively better choices. Start by offering eco-alternatives but aim to raise awareness and reduce consumption. For the long-term viability of our planet, less is truly more.
Actually, government and big business have major roles to play in the rapid shift necessary to bring our delicate ecosystem back into balance. However, each person’s daily choices multiplied by 300 million people in the U.S. alone (and billions worldwide) can add up to a major collective impact. EVO’s goal is to make it easy for individuals to make greener choices every day. If each of us chose locally grown organic produce, changed at least a single light bulb, made sure our next car got more than 40mpg - we would go a long way toward decreasing the demand for wasteful, harmful products and increasing our quality of life now and for our children.
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