Carbon Offsetting: Not All Credits are Created Equal
Looking through her latest Money magazine this past weekend, Emily (wife) relayed an uncomfortable point made by one of the articles: not all carbon offsets are created equal. I say uncomfortable, because personally I found it pretty inspiring to find out how affordable carbon offsetting could be. Of course, whether they do it intentionally or not, companies can easily capitalize on my good feelings at becoming a more responsible citizen of the planet. It’s critical to remember that these companies are for-profit organizations, which means their main goal is to maximize their own growth and profits. This inevitably leads to certain trade-offs between the quality of the particular programs that the sole carbon offsets support, and the profit margin on the credits themselves. As with any other part of the market, caveat emptor (buyer beware) rules the day; if the consumer lacks information or expertise about a product, it’s inevitable that less scrupulous companies will come along to take advantage and sell junk products. In the case of carbon offsets, the critical expertise rests on two points: how much carbon is really absorbed (or conserved) by the offsetting measure, and how much that offset is really worth.
Unfortunately - and I’ve done a fair amount of armchair research on this one - this information isn’t really accessible yet. At best, the published numbers on carbon absorbtion in different methods (planting trees, for instance) are fuzzy. Additionally, the carbon emissions tied up in our daily activities can be pretty difficult to measure. For instance, if a tractor trailer gets 4 mpg, and carries 10 tons of strawberries from Watsonville, CA to Gainesville, FL (about 2725 miles), where I buy a one-pint container…how much carbon does that emit? In calculating that, how do I account for the carbon involved in growing and harvesting the strawberries? Or, to take more straightforward example, how much carbon is really emitted by the flight I’m going to take from Jacksonville to San Francisco? To get around these sticking points, most calculators rely on averages…but then, how do they calculate the aggregate emissions from which the average is derived? It’s a lot to consider, really.
Fortunately, you can go a long way toward addressing the first issue - the quality of offsets - by taking a look at this site. I was happy to find this page, since I’d been considering Carbonfund.org for offsetting some travel I have to do this month…now, I think I’ll take a look at some of the higher-rated companies. After all, if you’re going to spend the extra money, why do it in half measures where you can’t be sure it’s really effective?
I’ll have to keep looking for a way to figure out how much carbon I’m actually responsible for, though, because it looks like I haven’t found the right combination of Google search terms yet. If you have any pointers, please let me know!
In the meantime, I’ll be joining a local CSA (I found them via Local Harvest) and planning my garden, to try to stay off the Watsonville-Gainesville route as much as I can.