The second step was to look at the materials needed to outfit the shop. I really tried to avoid purchasing any new items; however this became difficult when it came to the bookcases. Instead I chose to source bookcases made from certified sustainable timber plantations. For the rest of the fit-out, well, I had been collecting pieces for the shop for as many years as it was my dream to own a bookshop, so I had a decent collection of antique tables and bookcases, old wooden tool boxes from my Dad's shed for displays, and I found a huge, wonderful, heavy wooden desk at a farm clearing sale that I picked up for just $100.

All of the gifts and stationery products in my shop have been purchased from suppliers who use either recycled materials or who already carbon offset the items they produce.

Finally - the books. This, I needed help with. I drafted up a letter and sent it to all the carbon accounting companies I could find, letting them know about my business goal to become the first carbon neutral bookshop in Australia. I suggested it may be beneficial to them to undertake a carbon audit - an audit that defines and quantifies the greenhouse gas emissions identifiable to a business so that they can then be reduced and offset - on The Little Dog Bookshop (the LDB) at a discounted rate because a) I believed it was an Aussie/worldwide first, and b) it may generate future business for them.

Luckily enough for me, it was the Carbon Reduction Institute in Sydney who offered the audit at an affordable rate. As far as we could collectively determine, a carbon calculator for the books - that is, a mathematical equation applied to the dollar figure against purchases and assets each quarter to determine the amount of carbon emitted from a business - had not ever been created. So what follows is an interactive assessment process that will be undertaken each quarter. Bear with me in reading through this next paragraph or so...it's dry but actually quite interesting.

Firstly, the emissions are broken down into three categories;

Scope 1 - emissions the LDB directly causes through fuel usage of company-owned vehicles.

Scope 2 - emissions made due to the electricity demands of the company (in the case of the LDB - none whatsoever because of our use of Green Power).

Scope 3 - emissions that are indirectly generated, through embedded emissions in products that are consumed or services hired.

To be truly carbon neutral, all emissions over the three scopes must be offset.

Over several long phone calls, lots of data collection and collation, and completion of online surveys, the Carbon Reduction Institute was able to collect information that enabled it to create a greenhouse gas inventory for the shop.

The inventory showed that The Little Dog Bookshop's total emissions for the January - March 2008 quarter were 71.93 tonnes of CO2 equivalent gases.

As for the calculation process - well, that's another story altogether! Needless to say, the process of defining how much energy is used to grow a tree, cut it down, transport it to the mill, pulp it to produce paper, print ink on it, blind it, then send it all around the world to any number of bookshops, is still one ecological footprint yet to be accurately measured!

Challenges in retaining a NOCO2 status remain. At this stage, we have estimated that it costs about 1 per cent of the cost of an item to offset the carbon that was emitted into the atmosphere as a result of that item being purchased from my shop. Thirty cents for a $30 book does not seem like a lot to me. I try to pass this cost on to the consumer as part of my wider community education strategy. I have placed a jar on the counter with a sign, and ask my customer if they would like to carbon offset their book - 'it will only cost you 30 cents!' I point out that this money goes directly to the Carbon Reduction Institute which purchases carbon credits on my behalf on the Australian Climate Exchange. Most people comply without a second thought and I would like to extend my sincere thanks to all those fabulous, caring customers who pop a few coins in the NOCO2 jar on the counter. I don't ask every customer if they want to offset their book anymore (I'm tired of listening to my own sales pitch, and worry I may be the cause of my own burnout!). At some point I may have to think about adding this as a 'carbon tax' of sorts on top of the RRP...there are still lost of aspects to this to sort out.

Ideally, I would like to live in a town where people care about each other, their environment, their impact and how they consume. It's not just booksellers that can do what I have done. Wouldn't it be fantastic if more local businesses in the Yass Valley became carbon neutral certified? We could have the big hairy audacious goal of becoming the first carbon neutral local government area in Australia! Really, I'm not crazy - all it takes is just a bunch of individuals doing something pretty simple (with the help of the Carbon Reduction Institute, all it takes is some ongoing number crunching) yet with amazing, long lasting results that the little ones in our community will thank us for years to come.

So, if you are reading this and wondering where to go for information, why not contact the Carbon Reduction Institute via the website www.noco2.com.au? They'd be more than happy to help and so would I.

How can you become carbon neutral?

So what can you as an individual do to become carbon neutral? Most importantly, the Carbon Reduction Institute encourages you to reflect on your lifestyle and identify areas in your life where you can easily cut back on carbon emissions. Catching the train to work, taking shorter showers, or turning off your electrical appliances when they are not in use are all easy-to-implement measures that will reduce your overall impact on climate change but won't influence your lifestyle negatively.

Beyond reducing your own impact through saving carbon emissions, you can offset your unavoidable greenhouse gas emissions by purchasing carbon credits (issued in exchange for products that reduce carbon emissions). The Carbon Reduction Institute offers to offset the climate change impact from your flight, car, holiday or even your family members. Please visit the Institute's carbon footprint calculator at www.noco2.com.au for more information on how you can purchase carbon credits to offset your greenhouse gas emissions and become carbon neutral.