Are we being Green-washed?

With the recent influx of global warming articles and with the presidential race heating up, I wanted to understand all the talk about our carbon footprint and carbon offsetting. CarbonFund.org contents that we are all responsible for climate change and all responsible for the solution. The non-profit organization offers advice on how to reduce current carbon emissions and also how to offset that which you can't reduce.

Lately this idea of carbon offsetting is gaining in popularity. The David Suzuki Foundation defines carbon offsetting as “an emission reduction credit from another organization’s project that results in less carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere than would otherwise occur.” Such offsets could be planting trees or using solar or wind power…although this purchase can quickly become complicated. People need to understand what we are purchasing exactly since although some of these offsets sound positive, they may not result in a net-benefit for the environment. To allow buyers to evaluate if specific criteria have been met, the Gold Standard has been developed to screen various vendors and see if they are legitimate.

A critical factor in carbon offsetting is ‘Additionality’ or Beyond-Business-as-Usual, which is a term used by Kyoto’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) to describe the fact that certain reduction projects would not have occurred if it had not been for the concern of climate change. This is a thriving business and like anything else (sigh) this is a potential for deception as some of these companies’ claims are not substantiated.

As the NY Times posted “Consumers seem to be confronted with green-sounding offers at every turn. Volkswagen told buyers last year that it would offset their first year of driving by planting in what it called the VW Forest in the lower Mississippi alluvial valley (the price starts at $18).

Dell lets visitors to its site fill their shopping carts with carbon offsets for their printers, computer monitors and even for themselves (the last at a cost of $99 a year).

Continental Airlines lets travelers track the carbon impact of their itineraries.

General Electric and Bank of America will translate credit card rewards points into offsets.”

These credits are now around every corner. So, before purchasing, take a moment to research the vendor and see where your money is actually going. In the coming months this issue will face increased scrutiny and hopefully this will weed out those that are in this to turn green into gold.

For additional information on purchasing carbon assets, please consider the following resources and websites:

- Clean Air Cool Planet: Consumer’s Guide to Carbon Offsets for Carbon Neutrality
- David Suzuki Foundation
- The Gold Standard Organization
- World Wildlife Fund: Gold Standard Q&A
- More information on ‘Additionality’

Posted by Liz