Eric Carlson

Did you ever have a moment when you thought your idea wasn't going to work, or was there a particularly challenging aspect to accomplishing this mission?

Our goal is the success of the environment, not Carbonfund.org. If we were no longer necessary that would be fine.

What are a few things that you recommend to people who would like to do their part but don't know where to begin?

Compact fluorescent light-bulbs — that's the no-brainer example of all time. Also, drive less.

What is a carbon footprint?

It's the cumulative greenhouse gas emissions from all of your activities — home, car, air travel, energy that goes into food you eat, clothes that you buy, your iPod. The average American is responsible for over 50,000 pounds of CO2 each year.

What is Carbonfund.org and why did you and your wife, Lesley, start it?

Carbonfund.org makes it easy and affordable for individuals and businesses to reduce their climate impact to zero. It is a direct action organization, designed to empower people to take responsibility for their impact on climate change. We don't want to beat people up. We try and help them where they are.

These days there's a lot of trendiness involved in going green. What do you make of that?

I think it's good. We want green to become a trend and I think it's here to stay. The thing about climate change is that it's not a political issue. Mother Nature isn't negotiating with us, science isn't lying. I see this as trendy but not a trend that can really go away.

What kinds of green habits have you adopted in your own life and did having children impact those decisions?

For a family of four in the suburbs we survive on one car — it's something you have to prepare for. We recycle everything, walk a lot, and take the metro. We buy organic milk and produce. We do the Seventh Generation stuff — toilet paper, dishwashing and clothes detergent.

Do you have any eco-sins?

We raised our daughters on disposable diapers. I don't see how you can do it otherwise. I love a nice long, hot shower. My wife is much better than me at turning the lights off.

Some people feel carbon offsets are a way to buy off guilt and don't believe it actually helps combat climate change. What do you say to such naysayers?

We are all responsible for global warming. We all have to be part of the solution and I think everybody ought to choose to do their part. The fact is, it's not that practical to tell people not to own a car — and even your Prius uses gasoline. You can do nothing or you can do something.

Al Gore's documentary An Inconvenient Truth: Friend or foe?

Big friend. Al Gore succinctly put the climate change issue into a 90-minute documentary that was accessible to tens of millions of people and able to communicate it in a way that we environmentalists had never been able to communicate it to a mass audience.

What does "green" mean to you?

Green to me is always about energy. I know there's a lot more to green than energy, but to me it's always been about clean air, reducing global warming, windmills versus coal.