Customers Opt to Offset their Carbon Footprints

Whether it's planning a wedding, jetting to a beach destination or even driving across town, consumers are increasingly concerned about the lasting impacts that daily living has on the environment.

Now a growing offset market is providing ordinary citizens a way to reduce their environmental footprint - whether it's choosing to e-mail wedding invitations instead of using paper or using a venue that's gone carbon neutral, paying a fee to offset emissions created through air travel, or purchasing a vehicle from a car manufacturer that invests into green projects aimed at slowing global warming.  Those projects range from tree planting to solar installations to wind farms.

For instance, airlines are starting to offer customers the option to offset their flights while many hotels are also providing carbon neutral accommodations.

A traveler on Air Canada making a return trip from Calgary to Toronto can pay $9.60 to offset the amount equal to the emissions -- 0.6 tonnes of carbon dioxide according to its online calculator. That money is then paid to an aggregator, non-profit Zerofootprint, which will use the money to invest in a clean energy project.

The idea is catching on in the car manufacturing sector, as well.  Those with a green conscience can buy a Land Rover, for example, knowing that part of the proceeds for the sale will go toward offsetting the emissions created from driving.  The Land Rover's CO₂ Offset Program is two-fold: it offsets both greenhouse gas emissions generated by Land Rover's manufacturing operations and the first 45,000 miles of every new vehicle use by its customers.  The ultimate goal of the program is to achieve carbon neutrality with investments made in renewable energy projects such as wind and solar, technology change and energy efficiency in Uganda, China, India, Turkey, Dominican Republic and other countries.

In theory, changing consumer behaviour by creating opportunities for individuals to buy into the offset market is well-intentioned. In practice there are challenges, says Aldyen Donnelly, who has for 10 years been helping large industrial emitters gain experience in the offset market.

"There's a wide range of offset offerings in the marketplace and airline travel is one of the most common. However, it is difficult to ascertain whether real net emission reductions are being achieved," adds Donnelly, president of Vancouver-based WDA Consulting Inc. "It's not clear that any offset purchaser or aggregator actually holds a contract that firmly binds the vendor to cut greenhouse gas emissions. This is a market full of credits with little in the way of balancing liabilities."

But, emission offset programs are definitely a promise, says Donnelly, pointing to a potentially successful program in British Columbia.

The province of B.C. recently announced it will track emissions associated with all of the work-related activities of employees of government agencies and Crown corporations.

The plan is that the province will periodically issue a tender call so developers of emission reduction projects in B.C. can bid to offset the government's footprint.

"A transparent tender process should result in a contract that imposes penalties on any offset vendor that fails to perform in exchange for the taxpayer-funded investment," says Donnelly. "There's good promise in this approach."