SXSW Loves It Some Ice Cap

It appears that SXSW is going carbon-neutral this year. The 250 metric tons of carbon they produce annually—if you're curious (we were), 18% of that comes from office gas and electric; 27% from their business travel; and 55% from the juice they use at all of the venues during the week in question—will be offset by their purchase of 376MW of Texas wind energy carbon credits from Green Mountain Energy Company. The company's also given a $5000 donation to the Austin Parks Department, earmarked "for the purchase and maintenance of native trees."

This is such an awesome development, we almost feel wet-blankety for pointing out that all of the people who fly to Texas to see the shows will be, well, flying to Texas, an emissions-heavy activity if ever there were one. But hey, like the man said, you gotta start somewhere.

Photo by iamspate on flickr