Every time I refill my car’s gas tank, I feel guilty. Living in a coastal California town where highways run parallel to the sparkling ocean horizon, surfing (and driving) is a way of life. I try to source the best options for my surf sessions — Patagonia’s Yulex natural rubber wetsuit, a surfboard glassed with Entropy bio-based epoxy resin — but I can’t help but think about all the carbon dioxide and greenhouse gas emissions I’m responsible for in between: checking the surf cam on my smart phone, filling up a bottle with hot rinse-off water, driving to and from the beach. What can I do about it?
It’s not just me thinking about this, either. Dubbed the “Greta Thunberg effect,” consumers following the climate crisis are looking for solutions to rewind all the carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases that are warming up the atmosphere. According to Bloomberg, “flight shame” (the high-altitude version of my driving shame) has boosted sales of voluntary carbon offsets, in some cases by nearly double.
Carbon offsetting has been around for a while as an option for governments and businesses to offset their larger-scale emissions, but it’s relatively new for providers to offer offsetting for regular people. For some, offsetting is an easy way to negate some of the harmful effects we cause simply existing in a modern society. But it’s also faced a lot of criticism as an imperfect solution and a “license to pollute.” It’s confusing — which is why we’re here to break it down for you.
What is a carbon footprint?
A carbon footprint is calculated from the amount of carbon dioxide (and other greenhouse gas) emissions that result from human activity and consumption of fossil fuels. This usually happens in the form of making stuff, consuming and using stuff, throwing stuff away, or purchasing services. Doing pretty much anything in the modern world contributes to your carbon* footprint.
It’s a lot of math, but for all the different ways humans create carbon emissions, the EPA has standards to quantify those emissions. (Protect Our Winters has this handy user-friendly calculator, too). If you consume 40 gallons of gas, that’s 78 pounds of carbon. Flying from Los Angeles to Honolulu costs 840 pounds of carbon.
*We’re using carbon as shorthand for the bigger bucket of carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases, like methane and nitrous oxide.
What is carbon offsetting?
Carbon offsetting, in theory, attempts to restore the natural balance of the earth. Burning fossil fuels like coal, petroleum, and natural gas releases carbon that’s normally stored deep in the earth into the atmosphere — not where we want an excess of carbon hanging out. (This is a simplified explanation for what’s causing global warming.) Purchasing offset credits means you are funding projects that help sequester carbon from the atmosphere. For example, you might support a reforestation project because carbon sequestered back into the soil through photosynthesis; trees are amongst the thirstiest carbon dioxide absorbers.
To be “carbon neutral,” you would add up all the carbon you’re responsible for emitting (your carbon footprint), and calculate, for example, how many trees it takes to sequester that amount of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. You would then purchase offset credits to pay somebody to plant those trees, therefore offsetting that carbon footprint. Boom. Loop closed.
So…how can this go wrong?
Turns out, a lot of ways. Carbon offsetting is not a pass to fly your private plane around the world just because you’re planting enough trees. Offset credits are based on a future promise that doesn’t pay off right away. Using the example of reforestation projects, once a tree is planted, it takes years for it to sequester significant amounts of carbon dioxide. If the tree dies or burns down, that stored carbon is released back into the atmosphere. In most cases, one tree planted today will take at least 20 years to pay off its full carbon-offset debt.
One ProPublica article examined carbon offsetting projects around the world going back 20 years and enlisted satellite imagery to determine if the forests that they claimed to plant were, in fact, still there years later: “In case after case, I found that carbon credits hadn’t offset the amount of pollution they were supposed to, or they had brought gains that were quickly reversed or that couldn’t be accurately measured to begin with. Ultimately, the polluters got a guilt-free pass to keep emitting CO₂, but the forest preservation that was supposed to balance the ledger either never came or didn’t last.”
The publication found that countries would have been more effective in reducing their carbon footprint had they cut pollution instead of relying on offsets.
Photographer and frequent traveler Meg Haywood-Sullivan admits, “it’s not a perfect tool, but offsetting absolutely makes a difference.” Especially when the alternative is doing nothing.
“I think about my impact every time I hop on a flight and at every meal, and as an environmentalist I can attest that it’s a slippery slope to easily becoming paralyzed,” Haywood Sullivan continues. “Instead, I try to use this knowledge as motivation. Motivation to fly less, eat less meat, be more conscious of my consuming habits around fashion, to stay informed, and to use my voice on the ballots and the streets.”
How do we make sure we’re buying “legit” offsets?
The first step should always be to reduce your CO₂ emissions and choose lower-impact options when it comes to your lifestyle. But for those CO₂ emissions you can’t avoid, buying carbon offsets is the next best option to help cancel your footprint.
Look for the keywords “third-party certification” and “audit” when researching carbon offset projects to support. The New York Times suggests looking for projects that have certifications from standards groups, such as The Gold Standard or Green-e. There are a lot of different types of certifications, so if the provider doesn’t have a recognizable one, ask questions. It’s a good sign if projects are transparent and can show proof of their claims and third-party oversight.
What other vocabulary should we get familiar with?
Real, verified, enforceable, permanent, additionality and leakage.
“Real” means that it actually exists. Seriously. Some shady operations took carbon offset funds but didn’t follow through, giving carbon offsetting a bad rep. The offset should be “verified” and “enforceable” by a third party, preferably one that is certified and follows global standards like the ones above. In the case of reforestation projects, we want the carbon to stay in the trees, ideally forever (not be cut down for lumber after three years), so the offset should be “permanent.”
These next two are complicated to explain but, trust us, they’re important. According to Gold Standard, “additionality” means, “the reductions achieved by a project need to be ‘additional’ to what would have happened if the project had not been carried out.” National Resources Defense Council describes an example of “leakage”: “Let’s say your money prevented the Amazonian landowner from selling his plot to a logging company. That’s great, but what if the logging company simply bought the plot next door? That’s leakage.”
How much does it cost to offset my carbon footprint?
Well, there are no standard prices per metric ton. That can be a positive, since with so many options and price ranges out there, you can support projects that align with your values and budget.
Haywood-Sullivan supports Chooose, which is Gold Standard-certified. Monthly plans range from $9.90-$39.90. An important factor to Haywood-Sullivan’s decision to go with Chooose was that its projects are backed by the United Nations and improve the livelihood of communities in developing countries. “With the impacts of global warming largely affecting poorer nations that are the least economically equipped to deal with our changing planet, investing in climate-positive projects can represent a transfer of wealth to the places that need it the most,” she shared.
Cool Effect claims that 90% of every dollar goes directly to their offsetting projects and allows you to select which project you’d like to fund. From community tree planting in India, Kenya, and Uganda ($7.69 per ton) to redirecting methane into clean energy into homes in Vietnam ($5.77 per ton), their projects are Gold Standard-certified, prices are affordable, and their documentation is easy to understand.
So is carbon offsetting worth doing?
Grassroots nonprofit Association Community Carbon Trees in Costa Rica sells carbon offsets for $25 per tree planted, with each tree averaging 1 metric ton of carbon sequestration. Founder Jennifer Leigh Smith is a certified auditor of CO₂ from Earth University and claims her regenerative reforestation project has planted and maintained more than 20,000 trees since 2009, while providing a fair wage to local workers, long-term jobs and resources for the community, including companion food crops. “We’re selling gourmet carbon,” Smith says.
For reforestation, she recommends supporting projects that are planting biodiverse trees within 10 degrees of the equator — where trees grow bigger, faster and harder — to yield the most efficient carbon sequestration. The projects should also incorporate community welfare with fair wages and other benefits.
Maintaining trees in the jungle is buggy, itchy, sweaty, tough work, but Smith is optimistic that carbon offsetting plays an important role in helping to repair the global climate crisis. “Let’s not stop living, let’s just live better,” Smith says. “Everybody do all the little things that we can.”
XX Rhea Cortado. Illustration by Alexis Conners.