We create climate-changing greenhouse gas emissions through everyday activities, such as heating the office or using a computer. The idea of carbon offsetting is to cancel out or ‘offset’ a certain level of pollution by paying someone else to reduce the amount of pollution they produce, or even prevent them from creating it in the first place e.g. stopping forest destruction.
In the UK, voluntary carbon offsetting has received a lot of publicity, with high-profile events, such as 2005’s Gleneagles G8 summit, claiming to have offset the carbon cost of the event by funding sustainable development projects in Africa.
Companies offering offsetting services to the public, where you can pay a fee to offset the cost of a holiday flight, or your car travel, are increasingly popular, and businesses are feeling the pressure to be seen to do the same. UK bank HBOS claimed to go completely ‘carbon neutral’ in 2007 through a combination of energy efficiency, buying renewable energy and offsetting.
Good carbon offsetting programmes can:
Wiping away the environmental guilt of a weekend flight to the continent for the price of a cappuccino is appealing, but unsurprisingly, it isn’t that simple. There has been criticism that some offsetting is ineffective or not well-regulated, or just pays for schemes that would have happened anyway. And, perhaps more fundamentally, we can’t cancel out all the effects of pollution through offsetting.
It’s vital to look at reducing emissions through cutting energy use and using more climate-friendly energy sources before considering offsetting. If your employer already has all these in hand, The Carbon Trust has guidance on working out your organisation’s ‘carbon footprint’, i.e. how much carbon you need to offset, and on choosing a good offsetting scheme.
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