Carbon Offset: What is it and how to do it?
With the rise of Climate Goals and Projects, the Carbon Offset term is getting a lot of attention from companies and consumers. We summarise the most relevant information related to this activity to give you the best overview about this topic.
What it is?
First things, first! A carbon offset is a certificate representing the reduction of one metric ton (2,205 lbs) of carbon dioxide emissions, the principal cause of climate change.
Carbon offsets are an important financing mechanism for emission reductions projects. If you develop a project that reduces carbon dioxide emissions, every ton of emissions reduced results in the creation of one carbon offset.
These offsets are sold in Carbon Markets to finance the projects. There are hundreds of different types of carbon reduction projects. These projects make environmental and economic sense, for emissions that are impossible to reduce, so companies are investing money to reduce emissions elsewhere.
How are carbon offsets generated?
Emission reduction projects reduce the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere in one of three ways:
- By capturing and destroying a greenhouse gas that would otherwise be emitted into the atmosphere. An example of this is a methane gas capture project at a landfill.
- By producing energy using a clean, renewable resource that eliminates the need to produce that same energy from fossil fuels, the burning of which releases greenhouse gas into the atmosphere. An example of this is wind power.
- By capturing and storing (or “sequestering”) greenhouse gases to prevent their release into the atmosphere. An example of this is a project that promotes the healthy growth and maintenance of forests.
Some projects include more than one of these activities at the same time. It depends of the scope and methods used to mitigate the emissions.
How to do it?
Carbon Offsets became so popular because is an available tool for individuals and organisations that wish to mitigate the impact of their own carbon footprints.
Carbon offsetting is easy and the starting point is to calculate your emissions. After this step you need to take action!
You need to look inside your companies operation and start to reduce your emissions. In general companies are creating roadmaps to start this transition to a Net Zero reality, putting goals and tasks in a specific time-frame to make this movement achievable.
The last step is to Offset the emissions that are not possible to reduce. To do this, a company buys the carbon credits that are created from offset projects.
If you are looking for a Complete Environmental Offset Solution get in touch with us and discover how bluebell can help you to reach your climate goals.
