Everyone's Responsibility

Offsetting is not permission to pollute—every individual and organization should take responsibility for lowering emissions wherever possible. This may include walking or cycling instead of driving, teleconferencing instead of flying and generally making lifestyle and business choices that will result in a lower emissions impact. 

However, there are still many activities for which we do not yet have low emissions alternatives, and this is where offsets are intended to help. Offsetting is an effective complementary tool to further reduce environmental impact after improving energy efficiency and lowering consumption. 

Offsetting is just one way that individuals and companies can actively contribute to climate change mitigation. Tracking the climate cost of one’s practices—both in tonnes of emissions and in dollars—leads to awareness that will encourage behavioural change.