Carbon offsets are path to travel.

A steadily increasing number of businesses are using such innovative financial products to as carbon offsets to partially or completely mitigate their carbon emission footprints--for far less than the cost of buying traditional renewable power.

Carbon offsets can be purchased from more than a dozen "carbon-neutral" companies and non-profit organizations founded specifically for the purpose.

While the specific form the offsets take continues to evolve as interest in them grows, the lion's share are Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) and Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) credits.

The Chicago Climate Exchange is a financial clearinghouse and regulatory entity formed to govern our nation's voluntary greenhouse gas reduction program.

Most of the Exchange's members are large corporations or municipalities who have pledged to reduce their emissions according to a specific timetable. Renewable Energy Credits are similar to credits offered by the Chicago Climate Exchange, but instead are offered through other carbon-neutral companies.

These for profit companies and non-profit organizations are free to obtain the RECs from any renewable generator in the country, as opposed to buying an entire building's load from a single source inside or near the local grid.

Since the effects of greenhouse gas and other emissions are a cumulative, global phenomenon, the specific location of the renewable resource is of little importance.

And as an added bonus for New Yorkers, the relative cleanliness of our grid (over half the power used in our area is generated from natural gas) means that RECs purchased from renewable sources in other areas have an even better chance of replacing far dirtier, coal-fired generation.