Offset Carbon Emissions

When talking about trying to reduce your carbon footprint the argument is pretty compelling when suggesting small changes to your lifestyle, particularly when many of the changes will save you money. The thing is though, we all have a carbon footprint, we all contribute to the ever-increasing levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and no matter how diligent you are at reducing it, you won't lower it completely to zero. The answer is to offset your carbon emissions and this could be a little harder to sell because people won't see an immediate tangible benefit to their way or life. It doesn’t necessarily have to but it may also cost you money.

What Is Carbon Offsetting?

Carbon offsetting is a process of purchasing carbon credits to help fund reduction projects that have been put in place to remove or reduce carbon dioxide around the planet. The idea is, you calculate, say, the emissions produced driving your car for a year and then purchase the credits equal to that amount of carbon emissions that have been reduced by that project. These projects might involve the establishment of renewable energy resources in developing countries or a tree-planting project. Carbon credits can also be attained through energy efficiency projects.

So, as an example, say you own a small 4 cylinder 1.8litre car and drive around 10,000km in a year, this would emit around 1.87 tonnes of carbon. To offset this, it would cost you AUD30.86 in credits.

Carbon Offsetting Businesses

Businesses can significantly reduce their carbon footprint by having a carbon assessment done which will highlight the areas in which immediate improvement can be made and then offsetting those emissions which are unavoidable with the aim of becoming a carbon neutral business.

Organisations might offset their carbon emissions by purchasing carbon credits to neutralise its carbon impact on the planet. Carbon credits could be purchased by replacing incandescent bulbs for compact fluorescent bulbs (CFL). A CFL uses up to 80% less electricity than the old conventional bulb and when replaced building wide in large installations will make a huge impact on energy consumption.

I’ve found a directory of low carbon businesses in Australia. Using these services or buying products manufactured by these companies will reduce your own carbon footprint and will reward these companies for making the effort for our planet.

It’s All About Awareness

Naturally, offsetting won’t completely solve the problem of global warming and climate change, but by simply being aware of the effects of your activities by calculating your emissions, some sort of progress might be made. By making the production of carbon emissions more quantifiable, individuals can begin to set themselves goals in reducing the greenhouse gases they produce and hence, lower their carbon footprint numbers.

There are many organisations devoted to the greenhouse effect by reducing carbon emissions through offering carbon offsets. In fact, I daresay there’s a link or two at the top of this page that will take you to one of them.