EBICO, the energy company whose stance on social justice is mentioned below (19/8/05) have now added an intriguing green aspect to their company profile. You can now buy Carbon Credits. These are tax-deductible charitable donations in which the money is invested in green projects. Large companies who cannot be bothered to reduce their own emissions buy these so that, in effect, they can have a stake in some genuinely environmentally-minded organisation’s attempts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. EBICO has a calculator that helps you work out, based upon the number of kilowatt/hours of gas and electricity you use, what you would have to pay to offset the effects of this. The advantage is that there are only a limited number of carbon credits available so if you buy some then some other polluter has to get his house in order! It sounds like a nice idea, but you might do better by buying a solar panel…
Posts Tagged ‘EBICO’
EBICO selling carbon credits
Monday, August 29th, 2005Cheaper power from EBICO
Friday, August 19th, 2005This morning’s post brought the scarcely unexpected news that Powergen, who supply my gas, was about to raise its prices massively. I read the small print and from 1st September the cost per kilowatt/hour will rise from 2.159p to 2.537p, an increase of 17.5%! A quick bit of shopping around on the internet unearthed EBICO, a not-for-profit company. Their charge will be a flat rate of 1.94p per Kw/h, so Powergen’s charge is more than 30% greater than EBICO’s. British Gas are even more expensive than Powergen (source: UK Power). EBICO was set up by a group of Christians in Oxford with the objective of ensuring that everyone, not just those who are able to pay by Direct Debit, should benefit from the lowest possible energy prices. This is particularly aimed at helping those who pay over the odds because they are forced into using coin-slot meters. It is possible to get both gas and electricity from EBICO, but in my case I am just interested in the gas. EBICO make no particular claims about being “green” (although their electricity comes from Scottish and Southern, who have a fair few hydro-electric plants) but they are interested in social justice. Enviromentalism and social justice go hand-in-hand, hence the entry here. So from my point of view it’s bye-bye, Powergen!
