Carbon offsets continue to be a trending topic in sustainability. They’re becoming a key part of the climate strategies of businesses and other organizations.
But what are they exactly? Here’s your quick guide:
Carbon offsetting means you pay someone else to either reduce their own emissions or remove emissions from the atmosphere.
You may be asking, “Ok, but why would I do that?”
Carbon offsets are an important part of our global strategy to get to net-zero emissions by 2050. They’re necessary for countering the emissions that, so far, are impossible to avoid.
When creating your net-zero plan for yourself or your business, you should strive to reduce your carbon emissions to the greatest extent possible. Then, only offset the emissions that are unavoidable. Carbon offsets bridge the gap so that you can live carbon neutral until those emissions can be fully reduced to zero.
When developing your offsetting strategy, there are some standards and guidelines that should be considered. Below are the guidelines from the The Oxford Principles for Net Zero Aligned Carbon Offsetting:
- Cut your emissions first, use high quality offsets, and regularly revise your offsetting strategy.
- Shift to carbon offsets that remove carbon from the atmosphere rather than offsets that reduce the amount of carbon being emitted.
- Shift to offsets that provide long-lived storage (e.g. projects that have a higher likelihood of storing carbon for eternity vs. others that risk re-releasing carbon into the atmosphere)
- Support the development of net-zero aligned offsetting
When purchased from reputable organizations that encourage the purchase of high-impact credits, carbon offsets not only reduce/eliminate greenhouse gasses from our atmosphere, but they also cultivate thriving ecosystems, fund innovation and drive demand for green technology. Credits with the highest impact do all of this while helping the surrounding community either through needed employment, funding education or infrastructure improvements, or even supplying a food source via agroforestry.
But when best practices are ignored and offsets are used inappropriately, low quality carbon offsets can end up harming the environment and undermine the reputation of your business and the entire carbon market. One type in particular are AUD (Avoided Un-planned Deforestation) credits. This means a forest is “saved” from being cut down, when there were no plans to cut it down in the first place. Essentially changing nothing. These credits are of course very affordable considering there isn’t any work involved to create them. That’s where we run into the big problem of businesses wanting to say they are “net-zero,” in the most cost-effective way, by buying all of these low-quality credits, which ultimately leads to no positive change.
That’s where the we come in. We do the legwork to verify that every form of offset we offer is high-quality, so you can offset your emissions with confidence and ease. By delivering custom solutions that both our partners and their audiences love, we enable organizations to be environmentally responsible while they reap the financial rewards of their stewardship.
Want to learn more? We’d love to chat! Reach us here.
