AmeriGreen Strategies

CARBON OFFSET CREDIT BROKERAGE

More and more businesses and individuals are taking a positive action on climate change by going “carbon neutral.” Families, companies, municipalities, and even entire cities have all purchased credits to offset their greenhouse gas emissions. Conferences, sporting events (including the Olympics), and theme parks are also joining the carbon-neutral movement. High-profile rock bands like the Rolling Stones are now offsetting the greenhouse gas emissions associated with their concerts, and many celebrities are choosing to go carbon neutral in their personal life to help raise awareness about climate change.

These credits can come from a number of sources. Most everyone understands the relationship between planting trees and cleaning the air. But CO2 is also eliminated when electricity is generated through wind, water or solar sources as opposed to using fossil fuels.

Going carbon neutral involves creating an inventory of one’s emissions, reducing these emissions wherever possible, and then purchasing ‘carbon offsets’ to mitigate any emissions that remain. The result is net zero emissions. Carbon neutrality is a voluntary market mechanism to encourage the reduction of emissions. Carbon neutrality fills a gap in existing regulations, covering many sources of emissions – including private households, public administrations, most small and medium sized businesses, air travel and public events. Although some argue that purchasing carbon offsets amounts to “buying one’s way out,” one can never reduce or eliminate 100 percent of one’s emissions.

Carbon neutrality offers the opportunity to take responsibility for one’s entire climate impact. Also, simply creating an emissions inventory – which is necessary to determine how many offsets need to be purchased – is often an important first step for many organizations in realizing the magnitude of their emissions, and can lead to emission reductions down the road. In this way, an organization works to initially eliminate half of their emission inventory, which is significantly better than ignoring the problem completely or waiting for a Federal mandate to take effect.

Not all carbon offsets are created equally

A carbon offset is an emission-reduction credit generated from another organization’s project that results in less carbon dioxide (or other greenhouse gases) in the atmosphere than would otherwise occur. Carbon offsets are typically measured in tons of carbon dioxide equivalents, and are bought and sold through a number of international brokers, retailers and trading platforms. AmeriGreen Strategies can design a customized program for you based on climatic conditions, population densities, and other specific circumstances.

Our scientists will conduct the necessary research and determine which renewable energy sources make the most sense for your situation. The creation of a wind farm; installations of solar, small hydro, geothermal, and biomass energy; methane capture from landfills or carbon sequestration (‘sinks’) projects such as reforestation are among the available options.

Some carbon offset projects are better than others, however. One issue is permanence. For example, although a forestry sinks project may absorb carbon while it is living, a forest is never permanent and may one day succumb to disease, fire, or logging – releasing the carbon into the atmosphere once again. Sinks can therefore be only a temporary solution. Also, buying forestry offsets does nothing to lessen society’s dependence on fossil fuels – something that is ultimately needed to address climate change. Finally, there are significant technical problems associated with quantifying the carbon sequestered in trees or soil.

The right thing to do

Carbon-neutral initiatives allow concerned individuals and organizations to take action on climate change in a tangible and affordable way. Because carbon neutrality is a voluntary initiative, offsets purchased are usually not intended for compliance with existing regulations and can therefore result in climate benefits over and above those required by local, regional or national mandates.

Moreover, since the first priority in any carbon neutral program is to reduce one’s own emissions, organizations that embrace carbon neutrality often end up with fewer emissions from their operations (especially once the additional cost of offsets are incorporated into one’s energy costs). Other benefits include:

Environmental co-benefits: Reducing greenhouse gas emissions can also result in less air pollution (burning fossil fuels causes air pollution) and ozone destruction.

Cost savings: many companies have saved hundreds of millions of dollars from simple energy-efficiency retrofits. Companies that are energy efficient are usually more competitive.

Improved risk management: staying ahead of government emissions regulations means reduced compliance risk, greater investor confidence, and less market risk (e.g. boycotts, negative PR, etc).

HOW IT WORKS

AmeriGreen Strategies will conduct an LCA audit of your business and determine your carbon footprint. We will discuss options in your day-to-day operating scenario, look at on-site alternative power generation, and explore all other available offset options involving procedures that can be implemented on-site, possible partnering options with other businesses, and off-site opportunities.
The outright purchase of carbon offset credits is an absolutely last resort.

Although the concept of achieving the goal of ZERO is the best alternative, the planet will still be better off if you work toward a 10% annual reduction and achieve the zero goal over the next ten years.ctices.