What are Carbon Offsets?
Carbon offsets are a mechanism that companies, governmental entities and individuals can use to help reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions elsewhere in an effort to compensate for the emissions they produce themselves.
An offset represents a financial stake in a project that will reduce GHG emissions, such as a renewable energy initiative or a reforestation effort. The concept behind carbon offsets is that the entity that purchases an offset is helping to balance out, or offset, its own carbon emissions by funding projects that will reduce emissions somewhere else. The premise works because GHG emissions do not only affect the local area where they are emitted. Some emissions can cause damage worldwide, so reducing emissions anywhere has a positive environmental impact globally. Finding good carbon credit offset companies has become an issue and the US government is researching ways to improve quality standards of what is considered an approved carbon offset that is listed for purchase.
Carbon offsets are expressed as one unit being equal to one metric ton of carbon dioxide or an equivalent greenhouse gas (CO2e). Therefore, if an entity purchases 100 carbon offsets, that purchase supports a reduction of 100 tons of CO2e.
Almost all everyday activities, from individuals driving their cars to companies heating and cooling their office buildings to industrial plants manufacturing products, produce carbon dioxide and other chemical emissions. The level of an entity’s carbon emissions, sometimes called its carbon footprint, determines how many carbon offsets the entity would have to purchase in order to become carbon neutral. If an entity is carbon neutral, it balances any carbon emissions it generates with a carbon reduction elsewhere.
Carbon offsetting is not intended as an alternative to individuals actually reducing their own GHG emissions. Rather it is a tool that people and organizations can use in addition to reducing emissions as much as possible.
A number of organizations offer entities the ability to calculate their carbon footprints and purchase carbon offsets. A few examples are Carbon Footprint, www.carbonfootprint.com, Sustainable Travel International, carbonoffsets.org, and Carbonfund.org. Such organizations enable people not only to purchase offsets, but also to indicate what type of project they would like to support if they have a preference.
To improve credibility and bolster consumer confidence, many companies that sell offsets use third-party providers to certify that the projects they support are appropriate and that their offsets are accurately measured.
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