Carbon offsetting (or carbon balancing, or being carbon neutral, or variations on those themes) are all pretty much the same thing. They all work by seeking to match the amount of carbon dioxide you emit in your business or personal life – or a particular part of it, like an event - by paying into schemes that either prevent emissions, or absorb CO2 that’s already in the atmosphere.

In theory, that should mean you are not actively worsening global warming by, for example, staging an event.

Offsets help to reduce the impact of polluting activities which are part and parcel of our modern lifestyles, including using energy generated from fossil fuels (until we can transition over to a fully renewable world), or destroying carbon sinks such as forests (for example, by clearance for cattle raising or livestock feed crops such as soya), or producing agricultural emissions such as methane.

Now, there will be much you can do in the way you run your business in general, or any particular event, to reduce your impact before you even think of offsetting. For example, when it comes to event organisation: by choosing a sustainable venue which has already minimised its emissions (eg, by having a renewable energy tariff and eco-efficient premises); by favouring ‘active travel’ (walking, cycling) or (next best thing) transport by train, bus or electric vehicle; by serving a largely vegan menu, etc.

But there will almost inevitably be unavoidable emissions too. So…the best rule of thumb is:

First: reduce emissions associated with your own business and specific events as much as practical. It’s really important that you do this, as otherwise you’re not actually reducing your direct carbon footprint, and that’s your prime climate duty.

Then (and only then): offset the impact of those emissions which you can’t avoid. How do you know if you have any? That’s easy. Are you a monk who never leaves their cell, barely eats a thing, let alone turns on the heating or gets on a bus, train, or (heaven forfend!) an aeroplane? No? Then you will always have some unavoidable emissions!

And that’s where offsets come in.

So just what is an offset?

The principle of offsetting is enshrined in international agreements between states, as part of the UN climate process. That’s the so-called ‘mandatory’ market.

But for most businesses, the relevant market is the ‘voluntary’ one. Over the last decade or so, this has become increasingly well-organised, with clear standards as to what qualifies as a credible offset.

In practice, it means paying an accredited offset provider to finance projects such as renewable energy (eg, solar or wind power) to displace fossil fuels; forest conservation or tree-planting; and replacing polluting cooking stoves used in rural areas of Africa or Asia with cleaner-burning ones. And a credible offset provider will also make sure that the additional benefits these bring about in terms of carbon reduction matches your unavoidable emissions.

What sort of offset’s right for me?

The first step in offsetting is choosing a sound, accredited offset provider – see below.

The next step is to choose a project which resonates with you and your event. If it’s focused on conservation, then a forests offset might be ideal. If it’s rewarding best practice in humanitarian areas, then financing the provision of clean cook stoves or water filters for African villages might hit the spot. And so on… Most good offset providers will offer you a menu of credible projects to choose from.

Not just trees then?

It is commonly assumed that offsetting is mainly about planting trees. Marketing departments frequently use tree planting schemes as a way of advertising their product as being eco-friendly, and it’s a really easy and visual way to communicate.

To be clear… we need more trees, and as long as the project you are investing your money in has been issued with an accreditation from a reputable carbon standard (see list below), you’re still doing good!

But there are issues with tree-planting as an offset method:

First, you have to be certain the trees will live long enough to absorb enough carbon to offset your impacts – and that’s hard to guarantee. Drought, floods, disease, marauding goats, illegal logging, slash-and-burn farming and basic lack of maintenance can all scupper their chances.

Trees are also vulnerable to the changing climate. A species that would have thrived in one region a decade ago, may not still be thriving there a decade from now.

Second, they have to be the right trees, in the right place. Simply planting the fastest-growing ones isn’t necessarily the best plan. Non-native tree plantations can wreak havoc with the delicate balance of the local ecology. And the wrong trees in the wrong place (eg, Sitka spruce on peat bogs) can do much more harm than good.

If you want glossy green leaves on your offset comms, you might be better off opting for a scheme which conserves existing valuable forests, rather than planting new ones. Supporting schemes that protect crucial forests like the Amazon, means that you’re investing in mature trees that are already absorbing high levels of CO² and have overcome the majority of survival risks mentioned above.

OK, but aren’t offsets just greenwashing and guilt-assuaging?

Done right, no. Done wrong, definitely.

In the early days of offsets, there were numerous dodgy schemes. Fortunately, most of these have now been cleaned up, and the latest accreditation standards are pretty robust.

In particular, they insure against falling foul on two key issues: additionality and double counting. ‘Additionality’ is a complicated sounding way of saying: am I sure that this project (a wind farm, a clean cook stove rollout, etc) wouldn’t have happened anyway, without my funding? If the answer’s No, then you can’t be sure it’s offsetting your particular emissions.

‘Double counting’ simply means an offset provider investing in a specific scheme to cut carbon – say a number of solar power installations – and then taking the money needed to fund it from more than one offset purchaser. 

Deciphering the good from the bad

There are currently a lot of good carbon offset providers out there, that are suited to different business needs and can be personalised to your company.

There are currently a lot of good carbon offset providers out there, that are suited to different business needs and can be personalised to your company.

The first step is to ensure that they offsets they provide are accredited by one or more of the key, established and credible offset standards. This will ensure you can offset with confidence, secure in the knowledge you are not only genuinely reducing atmospheric carbon, or avoiding its increase, but also avoiding doing so in a way which has negative impacts on the local environment or communities.

They also make sure to avoid unintended consequences (for example, protection of one forest area leading to increased rates of destruction in a neighbouring patch!).

Among the globally recognised standards to look out for are:

• Gold Standard
• Verified Carbon Standard
• American Carbon Registry
• Climate Action Reserve
• Plan Vivo

There is a good range of offset providers whose projects meet some or all of these standards. Among those widely recognised as first class are: 3Degrees

• Carbon Checkout
• Climate Impact
• Carbon Neutral Britain
• Ecologi
• Myclimate
• Native Energy
• Planetly / One Trust
• Terrapass

Offset advantages

As well as credibly reducing your impact on the climate, a good quality, accredited offset scheme has a number of other advantages.

First, most have additional ‘co-benefits’, for example:

• Clean cook stoves or solar power for the poor in the Global South provide immediate help on a humanitarian basis, as well as curbing emissions. They not only save carbon, but also improve the health and quality of life of some of the people most at risk from climate change.
• Forest conservation can help reduce flood risk, moderate local climates, safeguard threatened wildlife, etc.
• Second, they can be used to help you compensate for those emissions you inevitably occur, but which can be hard to measure. So, for example, it’s easy to calculate your core emissions from energy use, transport, etc – and there are plenty of handy carbon calculators to help you do so, or you can take advice from offset providers and specialists such as Planet Mark. But there will be some emissions that, as a small business in particular, it’s just too hard to calculate – eg, the carbon impact of lithium extraction or aluminium production for your mobiles; or the emissions associated with your morning coffee. So by ‘rounding up’ your emissions estimates and then adding further offset funding to cover them, you can credibly tackle this while avoiding spending vast amounts of time in the weeds of carbon calculations.
• Third, it can send a positive message to your customers and improves your business image. A credible offset, well communicated, might actually encourage them to join in too, so boosting its impact.
• And finally, you can also choose to offset some or all of your past emissions, either over the last year, or a few years, or even since your business was founded. That way, you’re actively compensating for the emissions you’ve caused in the past, which will be damaging the climate for many years to come.

Offset risks

There is always the risk that offsetting might make you lazy when it comes to tackling your own emissions – especially if it appears cheaper to offset than to decarbonise closer to home.

But if you go down that route, you’ll not only rapidly lose credibility; you might also, by taking your eye off the ball, by inadvertently increasing your emissions and missing out on all sorts of innovative, cost-effective opportunities to reduce direct emissions! And you really don’t want to be doing that…

In the next issue…

We will be helping you to drive sustainable action into your award categories and not by adding a stand-alone ‘Sustainable’ category but by embedding sustainability into your entire category list. So tune in for the next instalment, won’t you?

Digital Event- Find out more 

LUNCH & LEARN for event organisers: Making your events more sustainable

Date: Tuesday 18th April 2023

Time: 1pm GMT Format: Presentation followed by Q&A with Evessio’s sustainability experts

Venue: Evessio Digital Event - Register here

It's FREE to attend, register today! Simply register with your Evessio login details or create your account to access the event.