Offsetting Carbon Footprints at Mana

Mana Retreat Centre is a very eco friendly environment where we try to consider the whole ecology of life.  We work with the awareness that everything is connected and interdependent, so caring for the environment is just a given.  From the beginning we built Mana with non toxic building materials, grew our gardens organically, used permaculture practices, as well as biodynamics on the whole farm.

These days we try to buy as locally as possible, grow as much of our produce as we can, hire local people and recycle wherever possible.  Now we are enthusiastic about finding more ways we and you can offset our carbon footprint at Mana.  We have some ideas; you may have more to offer us as well. We would like to offer people who come to Mana the awareness of what footprint a car ride from Auckland might amount to, or a flight from LA or Brisbane. Then, if you would like to participate in our program you can donate to different projects that we are working on: planting more trees, creating more organic gardens, buying more solar panels, an electric vehicle, volunteering time, networking for us etc.

Also you can get involved in our car pooling program, take the ferry over from Auckland or spend a little time while you stay with us working on the land. There are many possibilities.  Just let us know that you are interested in offsetting your carbon footprint when you register and we will offer you some possibilities.  Join us in helping to sustain this precious planet of ours!  See below for some facts about your footprint and some ways to off set them. Thank you, see you soon at Mana.

Travel to Mana by air or car are major contributors to carbon emmissions.  Here are a few examples of your carbon footprint:  

A flight from  Los Angeles, U.S.A. to Auckland  would produce 2.4 tonnes of CO2 per person, from Melbourne, Australia to Auckland .5 tonnes, from Frankfurt, Germany to Auckland 4.2 tonnes.  A car trip from Auckland to Mana in a mid sized car would produce .o7 tonnes of CO2 per carload. All values are for return trips.

Planting trees is one of the easiest ways to offset your carbon footprint and your trip to Mana can become carbon neutral. Trees absorb CO2 and produce oxygen and wood, provide wildlife habitat and water, increase NZ native bush and enhance the landscape. Each tree planted offsets your environmental  impact by "breathing in" about one tonne of CO2 over its lifetime of 100 years.

Practically speaking this means that your donation towards planting one tree would cover your travel emissions from Melbourne, if you are flying from Europe it would require the planting of 5 trees to offset your carbon footprint.

We encourage our guests to participate Mana's carbon offset programme. Carbon offset donations can be made while you are staying at Mana and funds will be put into a special Eco fund.

$25 for each tree planted at Mana (which includes the purchase of the tree, ground preparation, planting, care and in the case of producing trees: harvest and preserving of fruit or nuts.)

General money donations of $25 for each tonne of CO2 emissions will also be used for the purchase of an electric vehicle,  solar panels and solar water heating.

If you would like to make a donation now on our secure website please click on the button and go to: Donations to our Eco Fund

As an option we have added a Carbon footprint calculator below to calculate your own individual  flight emissions: