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Reduce your Carbon Emissions and Invest in Carbon Offsets Sustainable Travel International (STI) offers some of the best carbon offsets and renewable energy certificate project portfolios available in the marketplace - all of which are certified and or verified by independent, third parties. We also offer a range of other complimentary services designed to help our clients integrate an effective carbon offsets program into their operations:
For more information, please review the links detailed above or contact us. Choosing a Carbon Offset Program At STI, as a public service, we've researched the leading greenhouse gas reduction programs available in the marketplace so that consumers, non-profits, businesses and other organizations can more easily compare and contrast offset programs and find the program that best meets their needs. This results of this research can be downloaded here. Disclaimer: this is not a certification scheme, and we didn't audit these offset providers. It is also not a subjective or objective credibility analysis. We are simply providing the information in a digestible format in order to help you better understand who is doing what in the voluntary offset market. Keep in mind that the offset market is a dynamic market that is evolving rapidly. As a result, some of the data included in our survey is already out of date. For more information, please contact us. Factors to Consider Many carbon offsets and renewable energy credits are of quality while others are not. As a general rule of thumb, you get what you pay for, so there are some important factors to consider and questions to ask when choosing the most appropriate program: Cost Efficiency. Questions to consider: For green tags, how much does the company charge to produce the equivalent of a single kWh from a renewable source? For carbon offsets, does the company offset full greenhouse gas impacts or just carbon dioxide emissions? How much does the company charge to offset a ton of carbon dioxide? How about a metric or short ton of greenhouse gases? Are volume discounts available? What percentage of your investment, if any, is tax deductible? Why the difference in cost? Third-party certification drives up the costs but helps to protect your investment. Renewable energy resources are plentiful in some areas, making it less expensive to produce the energy, whereas in other areas legal requirements for utilities exist that can constrain the supply driving up the costs of the offsets. Renewable energy projects like wind farms, cost more per each kWh they produce because the up-front investment in wind turbines is high. Credibility. Questions to consider: Are any, all or only some of the company's projects inspected, verified and or certified by independent third parties? Does this process addresses issues related to accounting, accountability, and true environmental benefits? International offset projects should meet Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) criteria under the Kyoto Protocol. Currently, the most respected certifiers include Green-e (www.green-e.org) for domestic renewable energy certificates or green tags and the CDM Gold Standard (www.cdmgoldstandard.org) for international offset projects. The equations used in carbon calculators should be based on international standards like those offered by the World Resources Institute. Transparency. Questions to consider: Is the percentage of funds that are allocated to projects divulged publicly? Do they avoid double counting? Are offsets or emissions reductions delivered upon delivery, within a short time frame, or in the future? Offsets should avoid double counting. In other words, once you've invested in an offset, it should be retired or taken permanently out of the market. Offsets should also support environmental "additionality." Additionality refers to offset projects that achieve reductions that are "additional to those that otherwise would occur". In other words, offset projects should support the development of new renewable energy and energy efficiency projects, for example, that would not exist otherwise. The amount of revenue invested in each offset project should be divulged. Typically, non-profit offset providers allocate an average of 80 percent of gross revenues in the project portfolios they support, whereas some for-profit offset providers allocate as little as 20 percent of gross revenues to their project portfolios. Ideally, offset projects should be under construction or in operation. After a project is operational and begins producing power, for example, offsets exist that may be claimed against emissions produced. Philanthropic and Humanitarian Benefits. Questions to consider: Are projects based in first-world or third-world countries? Do they support renewable energy, energy efficiency, reforestation and / or afforestation? How about community development and environmental conservation? Do they provide local communities with opportunities for energy independence? Quality offset projects:
Business / Organizational Support. Questions to consider: What type of support does the company provide its business clients? Does the program provide custom greenhouse gas or carbon calculators, consumer-oriented educational materials, employee training, and / or marketing and public relations support? Offset providers should work directly with reservations, IT and or marketing departments, providing:
Definitions Clean Development Mechanism: International standards developed under the Kyoto Protocol to ensure that an emission reduction project is a good investment, makes a genuine reduction in carbon emissions as well as being of benefit to the host country and sustainable development. It is not an actual offset project. Green Power: Electricity produced by sources that are less harmful to the environment than fossil fuels. While there is no strict definition of green power, generally renewable sources such as solar, wind power, geothermal, biomass, and small hydroelectric are considered green power sources (source PPL Corporation). There is a physical connection between the investor and the generating renewable energy asset. You are making a direct contribution toward a kWh from a renewable source. Greenhouse Gas (GHG) / Carbon Offset: A mechanism by which the impact of emitting a ton of GHG or CO2 can be negated or diminished by avoiding the release of a ton elsewhere, or absorbing a ton of GHG or CO2 from the air that otherwise would have remained in the atmosphere. Green Tags / Renewable Energy Certificates are one many strategies for offsetting; others include reforestation, afforestation and avoided deforestation. Green Tags / Renewable Energy Certificates (REC): A REC is a tradable commodity representing the environmental benefits of 1 Mega Watt hour of energy from a renewable source. If a renewable energy project meets stringent additionality criteria, it can be used to generate offsets. In these instances, RECs are quantified as 1400 pounds of greenhouse gases being offset. There is a direct connection between the investor and the generating renewable energy asset if the investor purchases BEF green tags, for example, and is using electricity off of the grid in the U.S. (i.e., their dollars help get more renewable energy into the grid). If the investor is not based in the U.S., there is not a direct connection between the investor and the generating renewable energy asset, but they're still making a contribution toward the incremental cost of producing kWh from a renewable source. Additionality: Based on the Kyoto Protocol, additionality refers to offset projects that achieve reductions that are "additional to those that otherwise would occur". Environmental Additionality: Emission reductions represent a physical reduction or avoidance of emissions over what would have occurred. Financial Additionality: Projects that generate funding additional to existing commitments that is specifically allocated to achieving greenhouse gas reductions. Reforestation and Afforestation: Reforestation is the re-establishment of a forest by planting or seeding an area where forest vegetation has been removed, whereas afforestation is the establishment of trees in an area that has lacked forest cover for a long time or has never been forested. For More Information Please contact Peter D. Krahenbuhl at +44-779-931-1228 in the UK / 800-276-7764 in the US, email peterk@sustainabletravel.com or visit www.sustainabletravel.com. |
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