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Weekly Short
11 February, 2022
Ever thought about the carbon footprint from all that scrolling, liking, hash tagging and filtering?
‘Cool Gram’ is an initiative from the Cool Points Club (CPC), who make your Instagram account carbon negative by removing more carbon than it takes to operate it.
The folks at CPC calculated the average carbon impact of an Instagram account over a 24-hour period. So for $5 a month, CPC works with carbon sequestration partners to capture and store more carbon dioxide than it takes to run your Instagram, even if you Gram all day, every day. But it does mean the less you use your Instagram, the more negative (and cooler) it becomes, in case you were wanting an excuse to reduce your scrolling.
We all know carbon negative Instagram accounts are not going to solve the climate crisis. What we like about CPC’s approach is how they are taking on the everyday and making climate action mainstream. They recognise that cooling your Gram is a small change, but it is all about turning everyday activities into opportunities to remove carbon and scale emerging carbon removal technologies.
And CPC aren’t stopping at Instagram, they’ve also launched a nifty initiative using digital assets (NFTs) to remove real world carbon. ‘Islands of Cool’ has collectables which act as a “digital carbon sponge”, removing carbon from the moment of minting, and at each and every trade.
Too often climate action is branded as worthy or an obligation. But initiatives like these show we can bring climate action to digital trends, whilst being an easy way to adapt habits. The everyday does count, and we’re all for innovative new ways to make it ‘cool’ to cool our planet.
By Alice Railton