Carbon Offsetting is a way of an organisation offsetting unavoidable emissions, after which a company may consider themselves 'carbon neutral'. In order to become carbon neutral, you can purchase 'carbon credits', where the amount is re-invested into environmentally friendly projects, from tree planting to the building of wind farms. In other words, you are reducing future emissions to make up for your travel and energy use today.
There are currently two markets for carbon offsets. First of all, there are mandatory schemes in place for larger businesses or governments. In the EU, these larger companies are required to cut their emissions carbon credits or similar from the market, under the European Union Emission Trading Scheme. Despite being the world's biggest polluters, the USA and China currently do not have a mandatory emission-reduction policies. Meanwhile, smaller organisations tend to voluntarily offset their own emissions, with their motive being to fulfil their Corporate Social Responsibility aims.
Is carbon offsetting just a cynical marketing ploy?
The reality is many office-based businesses, who form the majority of the voluntary sector, produce a relatively low amount of emissions. Therefore, carbon offsetting is comparatively low cost. Cynics therefore tend to suspect that many businesses go for carbon offsetting as a cheap way to buy an environmentally friendly image.
To avoid this situation, it's important to first of all review how you can reduce your environment impact before you consider offsetting your emissions, thereby demonstrating that you consider the environment as part of how you go about business. This can be done first of all by developing an Environmental Management System (EMS). The most recognised EMS is the ISO 14001 standard, which can enhance reputation considerably when the organisation is independently verified to meet the standard, thereby achieving ISO 14001 certification.
How do you find out your carbon emission output?
In order to offset your emissions, first of all you will need to know how much you are producing. In order to do this, you need to work out your 'carbon footprint'. An online calculator can help you work out how much CO2 your are produced through activities such as transportation and travel, as well as energy use. A study in 2008 showed that the voluntary market accounted for $705m worth of carbon offsets in 2008, which resulted in 123.4m metric tons of CO2 equivalent reductions.
What carbon offsetting partner should you choose?
It's important that your organisation's good nature is not wasted. To avoid rogue trading, there are a number of industry standards in place to help. These include the 'Voluntary Carbon Standard' and the 'CDM Gold standard' which provide third-party verification of the company. There used to be a Government Quality Assurance Scheme, but sadly this no longer operating. The key is to choose a supplier whose carbon credits are Kyoto Protocol compliant. This means they are traceable have been verified by the United Nations, giving you assurance that the carbon offsets bought a represent a real reduction in carbon emissions.
