Climate change is a growing public concern.

We cannot solve the problem of climate change without strong government action and leadership, but organizations and individuals can also make an important contribution by minimizing their climate impact and reducing their emissions from driving, flying, electricity use, heating, and other sources.

To deal with the carbon footprint that remains after their emission reduction efforts, many individuals, businesses, and other organizations are turning to carbon offsets.

The David Suzuki Foundation and the Pembina Institute have prepared this guide to help Canadian consumers, businesses and organizations assess the quality of carbon offsets and the vendors that sell them. It includes a survey of 20 carbon offset vendors from Canada and around the world to help shed light on how these vendors are performing.

The simplest way to ensure the quality of the offsets you buy is to look for offsets that are certified to a relatively strong, independent standard (like The Gold Standard), and, in terms of offset type, to focus on offsets from projects like renewable energy and energy-efficiency projects that help support the transition to a clean-energy economy.

Of course, it is possible to have high quality offset projects that have not been certified to a strong standard. In these situations, buyers must be prepared to perform some extra due diligence to evaluate the offsets they are considering. 

Frequently asked questions about this guide

Carbon offsets are essentially a service whereby the purchaser pays someone else to create greenhouse gas reductions on his or her behalf. Investing in solar cooking stoves for a rural African village is one example. This allows purchasers to take responsibility for their climate impact and show leadership on climate change.

Demand for carbon offsets around the world has led to a large and growing carbon market. Players in the carbon market include businesses, governments, financial institutions, non-profit organizations, and individuals that develop, broker, buy, sell, and trade carbon offsets. It has been estimated that in 2008 there were over CAD$460 million transactions in the voluntary carbon market.

First, know your carbon footprint and understand what your largest sources of emissions are. Ensure that you include all of your major emission sources, such as electricity consumption, fuel use, and travel (vehicles and air travel). Use carbon calculators from the websites of reputable offset vendors. Look for calculators that allow you to enter detailed information, such as the make and model of your vehicle, as this will produce more accurate results. For example, check out the list of carbon calculators on our website at:

http://www.davidsuzuki.org/Climate_Change/What_You_Can_Do/carbon_neutral.asp 

Second, before purchasing carbon offsets, reduce your own carbon footprint as much as possible. We all need to make changes at work and in our personal lives to achieve the global emission reductions needed to help solve the problem of climate change. Making reductions will also add credibility to your offset purchase and save you money on offsets should you decide to go all the way and become carbon neutral.

Third, do your research. The carbon offset market for voluntary purchases is not regulated and does not have universal standards. We hope that a strong offset standard for Canada will be developed and implemented as soon as possible. This will help ensure that the voluntary carbon market in Canada flourishes, and allow Canadians to use carbon offsets with confidence to help reduce their climate impact.

Offsets are not a replacement for direct action by individuals, businesses or organizations to reduce their own carbon footprints, but if used as a complementary measure, they can offer a number of benefits. These include promoting innovation, helping to make clean energy projects more economically viable, and allowing people to take responsibility for their entire carbon footprint, including emissions that can't be effectively reduced. Carbon offsets can also allow individuals, businesses, and organizations to demonstrate leadership on climate change by going beyond existing government regulations.

Because the survey of offset vendors in this guide is just a snapshot of practices at the time of the survey, buyers are encouraged to do some research before making a purchase. Below are some sample questions to ask vendors or to answer using the information on vendor websites.

Here are ten questions to ask an offset supplier:

1. What is/are the specific offset project type(s) (e.g. wind farm, methane capture, etc.) in your portfolio and where are the carbon offset projects located?
2. Have your carbon offsets been certified to a recognized standard (Gold Standard, CDM, VCS, Climate Action Reserve, Green-e Climate Protocol for Renewable Energy, etc.) to ensure quality? If so, please list the standard(s).
3. What steps have you taken to ensure that the carbon offsets you are selling are additional?
4. How do you ensure that the greenhouse gas reductions that your carbon offsets represent are quantified accurately?
5. Are 100 per cent of your offsets validated and verified by accredited third parties?
6. If you are selling offsets that will be created in the future (i.e., forward crediting), what mechanisms (insurance or otherwise) have you put in place to ensure those offsets will actually be delivered?
7. What percentage of your portfolio (by tonnes of CO2e) is made up of offsets from tree planting or agricultural soils projects? If it is a significant percentage (more than 20% of your portfolio), how do you address permanence risks?
8. Do you use a publicly accessible registry to track your offsets? If yes, please list the website. If not, how do you ensure that your offsets are only sold to one buyer? And do you “retire” offsets that you sell?
9. What is your company doing to educate consumers about climate change and the need for government policy to deal with it?
10. Are you a member of the International Carbon Reduction and Offset Alliance (ICROA), which has a 'Code of Best Practice' that members must adhere to?

See the full guide for details on how to assess the information you obtain.

To get you started, here are some tips on how to buy carbon offsets:

• Put climate protection first. Carbon offsets need to be high quality in order to have any benefit for the climate. It’s better to buy fewer, higher-quality offsets, rather than a greater number of lower-quality ones. Look for offsets that are accredited by relatively strong, independent standards, such as the CDM or The Gold Standard, which can help ensure that key quality criteria are met.
• Be an informed purchaser. Consider vendor claims of offset quality carefully. Look for vendors that have detailed information about their offsets on their website, so you know what you are purchasing. Don’t hesitate to ask for any information that is not publicly available on the vendor’s website.
• Seek independent information. You can consult other expert reviews and analyses of carbon offsets, vendors, and the voluntary carbon market, and/or seek advice from a reputable environmental organization or greenhouse gas consultant.
• To ensure any offsets you purchase are only sold once, choose vendors who guarantee to “retire” the offset from the market on your behalf, and who use a third-party, publicly accessible registry that tracks ownership of the offset over its lifetime. 

Here is a summary table showing how 14 Canadian offset vendors as well as six popular international offset vendors stacked up. We rated them on the basis of the following six criteria:

Additionality: Additionality, or going beyond “business as usual” is one of the key things to look for when assessing carbon offsets. It’s important not to pay for an activity that would have happened anyway, because then there’s no extra benefit for the climate from your investment. To be additional, an offset project would not have happened without the offset market, or the extra revenue from offset sales (i.e. the reductions would have happened anyway). We looked at whether vendors sold offsets that were screened for additionality, and gave top marks to vendors that sell offsets certified to standards that require additionality testing.

Auditing (validation and verification): Independent auditing provides assurance that statements made about offsets are true and correct. “Validation” takes place before the offset project activity is underway, and assesses project design. “Verification” occurs after the project has been implemented and has generated reductions, and confirms independently whether reductions actually took place and if they are more or less than originally anticipated. We gave the highest marks to vendors that stated that 100% of their offsets were independently validated and verified.

Unique ownership: Because offsets are an intangible commodity, it is especially important that clear ownership rights are established to the greenhouse gas reductions that the offset represents. As an indicator of unique ownership, we looked for the use of publicly accessible registries (e.g., online) that track offsets. We also asked vendors if they undergo third-party “sales and supply” audits to ensure they are only selling their offsets once.

Permanence: Permanence refers to the durability of the climate benefit from an offset project, and varies depending on the offset project type. For example, in the case of offset projects from renewable energy, energy efficiency, or methane destruction, there is no risk of reversal and permanence is not an issue.

Vendor transparency: To allow customers to evaluate quality and other offset purchase criteria, vendors should be highly transparent about their offsets and their operations. We gave marks for offset project information available on a vendor’s website, including: offset project type and location; description of technology used (i.e., how reductions are achieved); the year the offsets were created; how many tonnes of offsets each project produces in one year; total tonnes of greenhouse gas reductions expected to be achieved by each project; the company names of the validators and verifiers, any offset standards used.

Public education: While public education is not critical to the environmental performance of carbon offsets, vendors have a great opportunity to educate customers about climate change and solutions. We gave marks to vendors whose websites included accurate information on the causes of climate change, and who let purchasers know about the importance of reducing their own carbon footprints.

• Tips for Reducing Your Carbon Footprint, by David Suzuki Foundation
  www.davidsuzuki.org/Climate_Change/What_You_Can_Do/
• Resources for businesses interested in measuring, reducing, and/or offsetting their emissions, by David Suzuki Foundation
  www.davidsuzuki.org/Climate_Change/What_You_Can_Do/carbon_neutral_business.asp
• Go Carbon Neutral, by David Suzuki Foundation
  www.davidsuzuki.org/Climate_Change/What_You_Can_Do/carbon_neutral.asp
• One Less Tonne, by Pembina Institute
  http://www.onelesstonne.ca/

Or visit our Go Carbon Neutral to find other information and resources to help you measure, reduce, and offset your climate impact.

The information on this web page is based on Purchasing Carbon Offsets: A Guide for Canadian Consumers, Businesses, and Organizations. It offers general information for individuals, businesses and organizations interested in voluntarily using carbon offsets, and compares specific offset vendors on the basis of criteria established by staff from the David Suzuki Foundation and the Pembina Institute. The vendor results are only a snapshot in time, and prospective purchasers should perform their own due diligence before making any offset purchases.

However, it remains the sole responsibility and obligation of the reader to satisfy himself/herself of the accuracy, suitability and content of the information contained in this guide. Mention of specific vendors, products or services in this guide does not imply endorsement of these vendors, products or services by the David Suzuki Foundation or the Pembina Institute or their staff.