Today I was a guest on The Good Green Witch with Rhonda DeFelice and our topic was Carbon Offsetting.

You may have the opinion that it’s damaging and another form of greenwashing. As in it may lead people & corporations into thinking you don’t have to do anything to reduce your carbon footprint, just pay to have it offset. Similar to thinking you can sin all week as long as you go to confession on Sunday. It just doesn’t work that way. You may also be of the opinion that carbon offsetting is another step (not the only) in being responsible in lightening your own environmental impact. This is my view for the record. I don’t do it all the time but I have used Terrapass to offset my flights and UPS shipping offsetting for my packages.

I read a blogpost about this years Superbowl being the ‘greenest ever’ including purchasing  15M MW equivalent in renewable energy certificates to offset the carbon emissions produced by the Super Bowl XLV. So if the Superbowl can go green, how about some of you 100+ million people watching the game follow their lead and green up your watch party? Typically I don’t watch the game but I am interested in how they are going to promote their green efforts!

So what can you do to green your Superbowl?

Here are a few tips:

Use real plates, glasses & silverware and cloth napkins. If you don’t have enough dishes for the amount of people coming to your party, have everyone bring their own set. This makes cleanup easier as well, since everyone will usually just rinse and take their dishes back home. If you are having a potluck they are already bring a dish anyway. If you must use one time use, choose bio degradable or at least recyclable (make sure you recycle them). Please for the love of all things sacred do not let any Styrofoam into your party!

Have enough food & drink but don’t go so overboard that at the end of the day their is too much extra that just gets wasted. Superbowl is donating their extras to food banks and homeless shelters, you could do the same. Designate someone ahead of time that will take care of this.

Shop local and organic. I’m not suggesting 100% (I’m pretty sure Dorito’s aren’t either of those) but do what you can. Expand on your vegetarian & vegan menu. Be creative and go beyond the celery you have with your buffalo wings.

Serve Green Beer! And I don’t mean the kind you will be drinking this St. Patrick’s Day. I mean eco beers. Sierra Club has some recommendations. If you have a lot of people, go ahead and get that keg it’s less packaging. Of course you want a nice pilsner glass with that and not a nasty plastic cup.

Of course recycle and compost what you can.

Turn down the heat, you don’t need it with all the people in your house. Not to mention keeping warm from your vegetarian chili and eco friendly beer. And of course all your yelling for your team.

Did you know you can get a Fair Trade Football for your own halftime game?

These are really quite easy tips that anyone can implement. What are you doing to green your Superbowl?