The Sustainable Future

How to find the best carbon offsets

When it comes to buying carbon offsets to neutralize the amount of CO2 our energy consumption creates, all options are not created equal. Here's an article in The Seattle Times with some tips on making an informed, effective choice about your carbon offsets purchase.

The tips include...

Peek behind the curtain. Don't accept claims of carbon-offset providers at face value. Ask questions: Who are their partners and endorsers? Do they undergo independent audits to confirm that the money helps the right projects? How do their prices compare with other providers? Which industry standards do they use?

No double-dipping. Make sure a carbon-offset provider's projects offer what is known in the industry as "additionality." In other words, they should not be projects that would have happened anyway without the funding from carbon offsets (such as projects mandated by a government).

Think twice about trees. While they may help the environment in other ways, tree-planting or reforestation projects are the most controversial types of carbon-offset projects. Trees absorb CO2, but scientists disagree on the effectiveness of tree-planting to reduce global warming.

Look in your own backyard. When carbon-offset providers or projects have Northwest roots, you may have more of a connection and greater accountability.

Power up. You can also "think globally and act locally" by joining the green power programs offered by local utilities.

First things first. Before you invest in carbon offsets or green power, make sure you've done all you can to reduce your environmental impact: Drive less, insulate your home, install energy-efficient appliances and buy less stuff. Carbon offsets will never replace good old-fashioned conservation.

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Carbon offsets: Can you buy carbon neutrality?

When I played the Consumer Consequences game, my score shot up (the higher the score, the less sustainable your lifestyle) when I entered the information about how many miles I fly in the course of a year.

My first thought was, OK, time to explore carbon offsets so I can feel all warm and fuzzy about my low impact lifestyle again. As this article points out, I'm not alone in that way of thinking:

The race to save the planet from global warming has spawned an industry of middlemen selling environmental salvation at bargain prices.

The companies take millions of dollars collected from their customers and funnel them into carbon-cutting projects, such as tree farms in Ecuador, windmills in Minnesota and no-till fields in Iowa.

In return, customers get to claim the reductions, known as voluntary carbon offsets, as their own. For less than $100 a year, even a Hummer can be pollution-free — at least on paper.

Driven by guilt, public relations or genuine concern over global warming, tens of thousands of people have bought offsets to zero out their carbon effect on the planet.

Unfortunately, it's not a slam dunk that buying carbon offsets is going to do anything more than assuage my guilt.

But the industry is clouded by an approach to carbon accounting that makes it easy to claim reductions that didn't occur. Many projects that have received money from offset companies would have reduced emissions by the same amount anyway.

The growing popularity of offsets has prompted the Federal Trade Commission to begin looking into the $55-million-a-year industry.

"Everybody would like to find happy-face, win-win solutions that don't cost anything," said Robert Stavins, an environmental economist at Harvard University. "Unfortunately, they don't exist."

I don't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater, so I'm still holding the possibility open that carbon offsets can have a positive impact. But it looks like - as with many things - you have to do your homework and not take the marketing spin at face value.

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