Going Carbon Neutral: Carbon Offsetters

Meeting date: February 22, 2007
Present: Rika, Kirsty, Lisa, Clemence, Alison, Katherine, Susan.

"Carbon neutral" was the 2006 word of the year from the Oxford American Dictionary. Every Canadian produces an average of 5 tons of greenhouse gas (including Co2) per year and you can neutralize your emissions by investing in projects that help reduce CO2. You can become carbon neutral for as little as $100, depending on the carbon offsetter you choose.

Notable users of carbon offsetters are Al Gore, the Rolling Stones and Coldplay - all of them purchased carbon credits to offset the emissions from their travel. "Syriana" was the first carbon neutral film. And of course, we all know that due to Sassy, WestJet now offers carbon offsetting on their flights if you book through Offsetters.

Overall, we're in favour of carbon offsetting, but Susan pointed out a few criticisms of the initiative.
- No standards or monitoring of carbon offset projects. The U.S. non-profit Clean Air - Cool Planet recently published the "Consumers' Guide to Retail Carbon Offset Providers," reviewing 30 providers. Three quarters of the projects scored less than 5 on a scale of 1-10, and the reviewers only looked at the providers' websites - they couldn't review the projects themselves. My own quick review of providers noted that 3 providers cited the same projects, leading me to be concerned about double-counting of offsets. However, a Swiss-based non-profit called Gold Standard is proposing itself as a watchdog for voluntary offset projects.
- Carbon offsets have been compared to papal indulgences - they allow you to continue sinning without guilt. For example, Land Rover UK offers customers carbon offsets for the first 45,000 miles of their SUVs' lives.

Sassy Actions

1. A pledge that our meetings will be carbon neutral. We can reduce emissions by carpooling and providing locally-sourced snacks and we can neutralize emissions from driving, heating etc. by purchasing carbon credits. Notable emissions calculators from the Clean Air - Cool Planet review include: BP's Target Neutral, TerraPass, and Carbon Counter. The top eight carbon offsetters from the review are: AgCert, Atmosfair, Carbon Neutral, Climate Care, Climate Trust, CO2 Balance, Native Energy (the one Al Gore uses), Sustainable Travel/My Climate.
2. A letter to VANOC asking organizers to make the Olympic carbon-neutral. (Lisa to look into this.)
3. A letter to some of the top corporations in B.C. asking them to make their business travel carbon-neutral. (Susan to research this and draft letter.)