Report Offers Guidance for Carbon Offsets Purchasers
A first-of-its-kind report evaluating companies providing retail carbon offsets to consumers has been released by Clean Air - Cool Planet. The 44-page <i>Consumers' Guide to Retail Carbon Offset Providers</i> is designed to help organizations and individuals that are considering purchasing offsets to help achieve carbon neutrality.
A first-of-its-kind report evaluating companies providing retail carbon offsets to consumers has been released by Clean Air - Cool Planet. The 44-page Consumers' Guide to Retail Carbon Offset Providers is designed to help organizations and individuals that are considering purchasing offsets to help achieve carbon neutrality.
Carbon neutrality – combining emissions reductions and offsets in such a way that one’s personal or corporate GHG emissions are effectively zeroed out – is a goal many organizations and consumers are interested in as the issue of global warming raises questions about solutions among more and more people.
The report (Download - PDF), the first to examine the retail offsets market, evaluates 30 providers selling offsets in the US market. Providers were rated against seven criteria, including how providers prioritize quality of the offsets, how easily buyers can evaluate offset quality, transparency in provider operations and offset selection, and how well providers understand technical aspects of offset quality.
Providers were also evaluated on the priority they assigned to educating consumers about global warming and global warming policy, whether the offsets offered additional environmental and sustainable development benefits, and whether they used third-party protocols and certification in determining or verifying offset offerings.
The survey and report were undertaken by Trexler Climate + Energy Services, Inc. (TC+ES) of Portland, Oregon.
"With a wide variety of carbon offset providers in the retail market and more entering it all the time, many consumers struggle to understand exactly what it is they should be looking for when considering an offset purchase," Adam Markham, executive director at CA-CP said in announcing the release. “This report explains some of the key attributes that consumers should look for when purchasing carbon offsets.”
“We are receiving an increasing number of requests from businesses, campuses, and communities with which we work, asking for advice,” Markham said, “so we commissioned TC+ES to conduct an independent survey and evaluation of retail offset providers in the U.S. market.”
In the executive summary, the report notes that, “in the absence of an accepted standard, almost anyone can offer to sell you almost anything and claim that this purchase will make you carbon neutral. Because a carbon offset is an intangible commodity, it is very difficult for consumers – even environmentally savvy ones – to differentiate between a high-quality and a low-quality offering.”
Against this backdrop, the “report seeks to provide consumers with an informational tool that can help them make more informed offset purchases in today’s market for carbon neutrality,” the summary adds. Measured against the seven criteria, the top eight companies, the only ones to score more than 5 out of a possible 10, listed alphabetically, were: AgCert/ DrivingGreen™ (Ireland); atmosfair (Germany); CarbonNeutral Co. (UK); Climate Care (UK); Climate Trust (US); co2balance (UK); NativeEnergy (US); and Sustainable Travel/ MyClimate™ (US).
“We want to encourage all of the providers to use these criteria to make their offerings more transparent in the market place,” Markham noted. “We hope this report can be as much a guide for improving the market as it will be for consumers. We want to encourage purchasers to look closely at all the offerings, using these criteria as a guide.”
“This report is a service to those who want to reach carbon neutrality,” Markham said. “Clean Air - Cool Planet has always worked with partners to reduce greenhouse gas emissions though energy efficiency and conservation measures first, before suggesting the purchase of offsets as a way to close the final gap between cutting actual energy use and credible carbon-neutral status.
“We hope this will allow people to gauge more accurately whether the offsets they buy are truly likely to help get them where they, and where we all, need to go.”
Carbon neutrality – combining emissions reductions and offsets in such a way that one’s personal or corporate GHG emissions are effectively zeroed out – is a goal many organizations and consumers are interested in as the issue of global warming raises questions about solutions among more and more people.
The report (Download - PDF), the first to examine the retail offsets market, evaluates 30 providers selling offsets in the US market. Providers were rated against seven criteria, including how providers prioritize quality of the offsets, how easily buyers can evaluate offset quality, transparency in provider operations and offset selection, and how well providers understand technical aspects of offset quality.
Providers were also evaluated on the priority they assigned to educating consumers about global warming and global warming policy, whether the offsets offered additional environmental and sustainable development benefits, and whether they used third-party protocols and certification in determining or verifying offset offerings.
The survey and report were undertaken by Trexler Climate + Energy Services, Inc. (TC+ES) of Portland, Oregon.
"With a wide variety of carbon offset providers in the retail market and more entering it all the time, many consumers struggle to understand exactly what it is they should be looking for when considering an offset purchase," Adam Markham, executive director at CA-CP said in announcing the release. “This report explains some of the key attributes that consumers should look for when purchasing carbon offsets.”
“We are receiving an increasing number of requests from businesses, campuses, and communities with which we work, asking for advice,” Markham said, “so we commissioned TC+ES to conduct an independent survey and evaluation of retail offset providers in the U.S. market.”
In the executive summary, the report notes that, “in the absence of an accepted standard, almost anyone can offer to sell you almost anything and claim that this purchase will make you carbon neutral. Because a carbon offset is an intangible commodity, it is very difficult for consumers – even environmentally savvy ones – to differentiate between a high-quality and a low-quality offering.”
Against this backdrop, the “report seeks to provide consumers with an informational tool that can help them make more informed offset purchases in today’s market for carbon neutrality,” the summary adds. Measured against the seven criteria, the top eight companies, the only ones to score more than 5 out of a possible 10, listed alphabetically, were: AgCert/ DrivingGreen™ (Ireland); atmosfair (Germany); CarbonNeutral Co. (UK); Climate Care (UK); Climate Trust (US); co2balance (UK); NativeEnergy (US); and Sustainable Travel/ MyClimate™ (US).
“We want to encourage all of the providers to use these criteria to make their offerings more transparent in the market place,” Markham noted. “We hope this report can be as much a guide for improving the market as it will be for consumers. We want to encourage purchasers to look closely at all the offerings, using these criteria as a guide.”
“This report is a service to those who want to reach carbon neutrality,” Markham said. “Clean Air - Cool Planet has always worked with partners to reduce greenhouse gas emissions though energy efficiency and conservation measures first, before suggesting the purchase of offsets as a way to close the final gap between cutting actual energy use and credible carbon-neutral status.
“We hope this will allow people to gauge more accurately whether the offsets they buy are truly likely to help get them where they, and where we all, need to go.”
