Importance Of Offset Quality

Not all carbon offsets are created equally. Voluntary carbon offsets are an unregulated market, so many projects promoted as offsets fail to meet the basic standards of additionality and permanence. If a project would have taken place without your investment, then it fails the additionality test.

All Offsetters projects are third-party verified to be additional, real, and permanent. We only invest in energy efficiency and renewable energy projects that unequivocally reduce the amount of GHG emissions entering the atmosphere.

What is a high quality carbon offset?
When evaluating projects to develop and invest in, we demand certain criteria to ensure your carbon offsets will be high quality. All Offsetters offsets must be: 

• Additional: Offsetters’ investments lead to real reductions in total GHG emissions by enabling projects that would otherwise not take place. Our funds help overcome barriers (financial and/or technical) that prevent these projects from happening, ensuring that emissions reductions are additional to business as usual. This is one of the most critical criteria for offset project development.
• Real: We enlist accredited engineering and accounting firms to validate all emissions reductions at the beginning of the project and then verify afterwards they’ve happened. Our carbon credits are sold once emissions reductions have been realized, so you can be confident that your financial contribution has a quantifiable benefit.
• Permanent: The emissions reductions are lasting and cannot be reversed.

In addition to lowering GHG emissions, Offsetters strives to fund projects that have significant positive co-benefits. For example, we provided funding for the installation of ground source heat pumps in a number of community organizations including schools, First Nations band offices and community centres. The heat pumps save up to 75% in operating costs – savings the organizations can use to improve social programs in their communities.

Finally, we recognize the major critiques of carbon offsets and only choose projects that avoid or account for:

Double Counting: We register our offsets on recognized registries—APX, Markit and the Gold Standard registries—to ensure that every carbon credit is counted by one party only. Offsets can only be claimed by the final buyer.

Inconsistent Timescale: Our projects ensure emissions reductions occur immediately—within the year you buy the offsets or earlier.

Leakage: We factor all potential sources of emissions into the carbon accounting of our projects. For example, if a project uses a lower emissions fuel source but requires trucking, then we take the additional transportation emissions into our accounting of the total emissions savings.

These are the same high standards used by such rigorous certifications as the Gold Standard and the Voluntary Carbon Standard.

Find out more about our local and international projects, calculate your own emissions, and buy high quality offsets when you’re ready to take action.