Source 44 - GHGe & Sustainability Data Services

Now that you have your sustainability data sheets, you're probably wondering where to go from here. For your convenience, we have partnered with several prominent carbon offset companies to provide you with an easy way to offset the carbon emissions you might otherwise be unable to reduce.

 Overview

Carbon offsets are used to represent carbon dioxide emissions that have been negated through projects such as reforestation, renewable energy, and methane capture. They provide an easy way for you to reduce your carbon footprint, simply by sponsoring them.

 Types of projects

If you're looking to offset your carbon emissions, you have a wide variety of projects to support. Some of these types of projects include the following:

Reforestation: These projects aim to regrow forests in areas which have been cleared by loggers. By supporting reforestation projects, you not only are able to offset your emissions, but you would provide numerous benefits to any nearby communities through the ecological services that the new trees would provide (e.g. habitats for wildlife, fruits for harvesting, erosion/landslide control).

Methane Capture: During the course of their operations, farms, feedlots, and landfills all generate large quantities of methane gas through anaerobic activity from bacteria, which acts as a greenhouse gas 23 times more potent than carbon dioxide. Methane capture projects work to contain and burn off this gas for energy, reducing the amount of methane that would otherwise be released into the atmosphere. In addition to decreasing their contribution to the global warming effect, it would also provide a source of energy as a byproduct.

Renewable Energy: By sponsoring these projects, you would be subsidizing the cost of renewable energy producers, making them more competitive in the energy market against conventional power plants. Your funds could go towards a variety of projects, including biomass, wind, solar, or geothermal.

Cap and Trade: Cap and trade programs, such as the Chicago Climate Exchange, distribute permits limiting how much greenhouse gases a company is allowed to emit, while maintaining a permit trading system. In the context of carbon offsets, these permits are purchased on the behalf of the consumer and retired to reduce the amount of avaliable on the cap and trade market.

Carbon reduction vs. carbon sequestration: These are two different methods of offsetting carbon emissions. Carbon reduction projects negate the effects of any increase in greenhouse gases through strategies such as renewable energy development and methane capture. Carbon sequestration projects act as carbon sinks that store carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. A few examples would be reforestation, deep injection, and iron fertilization. However, aside from reforestation, few of these methods have held up to scientific scrutiny.

 FAQs

How do I know my money will actually go towards funding these projects?

Standards have been established in order to allay concerns in the industry over fradulent offsets. Carbon offset subscribe to these standards, which provide specifications concerning issues such as additionality and validity. Auditors are then sent to verify that these companies are adhering to these standards. A few of the more popular standards are the Gold Standard, Voluntary Carbon Standard, and the Clean Development Mechanism.

What is the additionality principle?

The additionality principle provides assurance that the project would not have happened without funds from carbon offsets. This is important to establish, otherwise carbon offset money would simply be used to subsidize their day-to-day operations. A majority of standards require projects to provide proof of additionality in order to be verified.