What should your company know when looking at emission offsets?

By Eva Båsk

Eva Båsk helps companies big and small take responsibility for their emissions with Compensate.

This worldwide coronavirus era we are living in has shown us one thing. We have the capabilities needed for radical changes and transformations when it is needed. Will we remember this once this is over? Are we capable of making changes that will positively impact climate health in the future? I believe we can.

If you’re wondering why a company should compensate for their emissions, check out my blog on just that here . In this one I want to focus on another big question: 

What should you and your company know when deciding to do your part for carbon negativity?

There is a lot of noise about emission offsetting in the media today. Just googling “carbon offset” will bring you about 99,400,000 search results! It’s an understatement to say there’s a lot of information out there. But how do you derive knowledge from that information? Where do you start?

Here’s what you need to know about carbon offsetting

There are many common questions around carbon offset. Here’s what we will try to answer in this blog:

• Are carbon offsets a good idea? 

• How can my company do carbon offsetting? 

• What are the best carbon offsets? 

• And how much does it cost to offset carbon?

Are carbon offsets a good idea?

Yes. While we need to radically reduce our emissions, to truly combat climate change, it alone is not enough. There’s already excess CO2 in the atmosphere, and humanity has a huge carbon debt. 

Taking responsibility for day-to-day emissions shows that your company cares about its carbon footprint and the future.

First, compensating allows you to better understand how your company creates emissions and what could be done to avoid and lower them. Second, compensating enables you to take responsibility for those emissions that are still unavoidable (and with Compensate’s built-in overcompensation, you could remove even more carbon than your company creates day-to-day, but more on that later).

If you’re still not convinced, check out my blog on why a company should compensate for their emissions here.

How can my company do carbon offsetting?

In short, in many different ways!

Companies can do carbon offsetting on their own. This can be quite costly, and requires a lot of resources and expert knowledge. 

Compensate exists to enable individuals and companies to take responsibility and action for their emissions, so we can help you out too! Our service gives your company an easy and transparent way to offset the emissions from company travel, real estate and events. We can help you with emission calculators and quarterly sustainability reporting related to your carbon footprint as well. The set up is easy, and doesn’t require much from your end.

What are the best carbon offsets? 

This is where the offsetting landscape gets particularly tricky if you don’t have in-house experts. 

There are five main criteria emissions reductions have to meet in order for you to truly say you are compensating.

• They have to be real. All emission reductions must be proven to have actually taken place to qualify as voluntary carbon units.

• They have to be measurable. All emission reductions must use recognized methods and techniques for quantification to receive verification. 

• They have to be permanent. To compensate for emissions that have been created elsewhere, it’s important that voluntary carbon units represent permanent emission reductions (as required by the global standards) and that the reductions are not likely to be reversed.

• They have to be additional. Additionality is one of the most important criteria for carbon capture projects. Carbon capture projects are "additional" if they have expressly come into being because emission reduction units have been sold to fund them. A carbon capture project would not be "additional" if it had been financed otherwise – for example, through government funding.

• They have to be independently verified. All emission reductions that are certified as voluntary carbon units have to be verified by independent, third party verifier organizations.

At Compensate, we’ve teamed up with climate scientists to help us in identifying the most cost effective, reliable, and sustainable means of carbon capture. 

Our Scientific Advisory Panel monitors research and practical applications in the field and assesses the carbon capture potential of the proposed projects. It then guides Compensate project mapping through its recommendations. The recommendations are based on climate integrity, biodiversity, human rights, long term viability of the projects and compatibility with the objectives of the Paris Agreement. You can read more on the panel here.

We take pride in our transparency, and we believe radical honesty is the only way to truly build trust in the carbon offset ecosystem. This is why transparency is very much a key to everything we do. You can take a look at our finances or receipts here !

How much does it cost to offset carbon?

This varies wildly based on the operator and method you’re using, and of course also on the amount of CO2 for which you’re compensating.

To give you an idea, we can talk about the way we at Compensate do it.

Compensate defines a price for carbon capture by the tonne. Let’s say you’re a company with 1000+ employees and you want to compensate for emissions caused by traveling. Based on the average travel for a company this size, this would cost you between on average €6,000 euros to €12,000 (about $6,800 to $13,600) quarterly to compensate. At Compensate, we have overcompensation built into this pricing, meaning that you’re removing more CO2 from the atmosphere than what your travel is causing.

Let's combat climate change, together! 

So there you have it. What other questions do you have in mind? Get in touch, and we can help you tackle them.

Smart companies and individuals are already radically reducing their emissions and working toward a sustainable future. But to truly combat climate change, going carbon neutral is not enough, we need to remove more carbon from the atmosphere than we put in. Compensate’s built-in overcompensation enables you to do just that.

Let’s start the conversation. You can contact me directly via eva@compensate.com or through here.