Carbon Offsets

Carbon Footprint

A “carbon footprint” (or: carbon inventory, carbon audit, greenhouse gas inventory) is an assessment of all greenhouse gases (GHGs) being emitted by a person or business within a specific time period, usually a year.  The most commonly used standards for measuring carbon footprints are the World Resource Institute’s Greenhouse Gas (WRI GHG) Protocol and the International Standards Organization (ISO) 14064 standard.  

Offsetters’ GHG inventories are completed according to the most rigorous industry standards including the WRI GHG Protocol and ISO 14064. 

Carbon Offsetting

A carbon offset is a greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction that is used to counterbalance, or offset, a GHG emission. They are sometimes also referred to as carbon credits, VERs, or CERs.

A carbon offset occurs when an individual or organization emits a given amount of GHG emissions but invests in measures that remove the equivalent volume of GHG emissions from the atmosphere or prevent the emissions from taking place at all. Carbon offsets are a financial instrument that represents this reduction (counterbalance or offset) in GHG emissions.

How to Offset

Carbon offsetting offers businesses and individuals the opportunity to offset unavoidable emissions with reduction activities elsewhere.

GHG emissions can be determined by conducting a GHG emissions audit, or by using a carbon calculator. You or your business then pays a specific amount according to the emissions you are responsible for producing. This money is invested directly in carbon offset projects that reduce GHG emissions elsewhere. Calculate your emissions here.

Importance of Offset Quality

When evaluating projects to develop and invest in, we demand certain criteria to ensure your carbon offsets will be high quality. All Offsetters projects are third-party verified to be additional, real, and permanent.

Additional: Offsetters’ investments lead to real reductions in total GHG emissions by enabling projects that would otherwise not take place. Our funds help overcome barriers (financial and/or technical) that prevent these projects from happening, ensuring that emissions reductions are additional to business as usual.

Real: We enlist accredited engineering and accounting firms to validate all emissions reductions at the beginning of the project and then verify afterwards they’ve happened. Our carbon credits are sold once emissions reductions have been realized, so you can be confident that your financial contribution has a quantifiable benefit.

Permanent: The emissions reductions are lasting and cannot be reversed.

In addition to lowering GHG emissions, Offsetters strives to fund projects that have significant positive co-benefits. For example, we provided funding for the installation of ground source heat pumps in a number of community organizations including schools, First Nations band offices and community centres. The heat pumps save up to 75% in operating costs – savings the organizations can use to improve social programs in their communities.

Finally, we recognize the major critiques of carbon offsets and only choose projects that avoid or account for:

Double Counting: We register our offsets on recognized registries—APX, Markit and the Gold Standard registries—to ensure that every carbon credit is counted by one party only. Offsets can only be claimed by the final buyer.

Inconsistent Timescale: Our projects ensure emissions reductions occur immediately—within the year you buy the offsets or earlier.

Leakage: We factor all potential sources of emissions into the carbon accounting of our projects. For example, if a project uses a lower emissions fuel source but requires trucking, then we take the additional transportation emissions into our accounting of the total emissions savings.

These are the same high standards used by such rigorous certifications as the Gold Standard and the Voluntary Carbon Standard.

Find out more about our local and international projects, calculate your own emissions, and buy high quality offsets when you’re ready to take action.