Here's a report which sought to compare different carbon offset providers --
Native Energy came out well in the U.S. Link at
http://www.greenbiz.com/news/news_third.cfm?NewsID=34324
A first-of-its-kind report evaluating companies providing retail carbon
offsets to consumers has been released by Clean Air - Cool Planet. The
44-page Consumers' Guide to Retail Carbon Offset Providers is designed to
help organizations and individuals that are considering purchasing offsets
to help achieve carbon neutrality.
Carbon neutrality – combining emissions reductions and offsets in such a
way that one’s personal or corporate GHG emissions are effectively zeroed
out – is a goal many organizations and consumers are interested in as the
issue of global warming raises questions about solutions among more and more
people.
The report (Download - PDF), the first to examine the retail offsets market,
evaluates 30 providers selling offsets in the US market. Providers were
rated against seven criteria, including how providers prioritize quality of
the offsets, how easily buyers can evaluate offset quality, transparency in
provider operations and offset selection, and how well providers understand
technical aspects of offset quality.
Providers were also evaluated on the priority they assigned to educating
consumers about global warming and global warming policy, whether the
offsets offered additional environmental and sustainable development
benefits, and whether they used third-party protocols and certification in
determining or verifying offset offerings.
The survey and report were undertaken by Trexler Climate + Energy Services,
Inc. (TC+ES) of Portland, Oregon.
"With a wide variety of carbon offset providers in the retail market and
more entering it all the time, many consumers struggle to understand exactly
what it is they should be looking for when considering an offset purchase,"
Adam Markham, executive director at CA-CP said in announcing the release.
“This report explains some of the key attributes that consumers should
look for when purchasing carbon offsets.”
“We are receiving an increasing number of requests from businesses,
campuses, and communities with which we work, asking for advice,” Markham
said, “so we commissioned TC+ES to conduct an independent survey and
evaluation of retail offset providers in the U.S. market.”
In the executive summary, the report notes that, “in the absence of an
accepted standard, almost anyone can offer to sell you almost anything and
claim that this purchase will make you carbon neutral. Because a carbon
offset is an intangible commodity, it is very difficult for consumers –
even environmentally savvy ones – to differentiate between a high-quality
and a low-quality offering.”
Against this backdrop, the “report seeks to provide consumers with an
informational tool that can help them make more informed offset purchases in
today’s market for carbon neutrality,” the summary adds. Measured
against the seven criteria, the top eight companies, the only ones to score
more than 5 out of a possible 10, listed alphabetically, were: AgCert/
DrivingGreen™ (Ireland); atmosfair (Germany); CarbonNeutral Co. (UK);
Climate Care (UK); Climate Trust (US); co2balance (UK); NativeEnergy (US);
and Sustainable Travel/ MyClimate™ (US).
“We want to encourage all of the providers to use these criteria to make
their offerings more transparent in the market place,” Markham noted.
“We hope this report can be as much a guide for improving the market as it
will be for consumers. We want to encourage purchasers to look closely at
all the offerings, using these criteria as a guide.”
“This report is a service to those who want to reach carbon neutrality,”
Markham said. “Clean Air - Cool Planet has always worked with partners to
reduce greenhouse gas emissions though energy efficiency and conservation
measures first, before suggesting the purchase of offsets as a way to close
the final gap between cutting actual energy use and credible carbon-neutral
status.
“We hope this will allow people to gauge more accurately whether the
offsets they buy are truly likely to help get them where they, and where we
all, need to go.”
Anastasia O'Rourke writes:
> There is a new certification scheme being launched for the providers of
> offsets to standardise measurement systems and quality:
>
>
http://www.green-e.org/getcert_ghg_standard.shtml
>
> It is still open for comment, incidentally.
>
> Anastasia
>
> Anastasia R. O'Rourke | Yale University | Ph.D. Candidate | Ph. +1 203 432
> 5216 (office) | + 1 203 215 1575 (cell) |
anastasia.orourke@yale.edu |
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Organizations and the Natural Environment Discussion
> [mailto:
ONE-L@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU] On Behalf Of Joseph Sarkis
> Sent: Monday, April 23, 2007 11:45 AM
> To:
ONE-L@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU
> Subject: Re: Super Bowl strives to be carbon-neutral
>
> Sandy,
>
> My concern here also has to do with the management of carbon-neutrality.
> They need to have systems in place that are able to measure what the
> emissions are in different scenarios with organizations capable of
> accurately measuring both savings and emissions. I don't think
> organizational practices are so advanced in this area that they can
> effectively make accurate estimates. For example, if you plant a tree how
> much CO2 does it really consume and how much does it emit? I have been told
> that a full grown tree is not really carbon neutral when it is full grown.
>
> Of course I am not up on all the different mechanisms available to
> organizations, but I bet in each one there are probably some
> 'guesstimations' as to what the true benefits are. With conservation, you
> can usually get a benefit that is relatively more accurate which is, (I
> think) your original point.
>
> -Joe
>
> ==============================================
> Joseph Sarkis
> Professor of Operations and Environmental Management Graduate School of
> Management Clark University 950 Main Street Worcester, MA 01610-1477
>
> Phone: 508-793-7659
> Fax: 508-793-8822
> URL:
www.clarku.edu/~jsarkis
>
jsarkis@clarku.edu
> ==============================================
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Organizations and the Natural Environment Discussion
> [mailto:
ONE-L@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU] On Behalf Of Sandra Rothenberg
> Sent: Monday, April 23, 2007 11:12 AM
> To:
ONE-L@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU
> Subject: Re: Super Bowl strives to be carbon-neutral
>
> I am curious as to what people think about these mechanisms to be "carbon
> neutral". (i.e. companies such as terra pass, etc). I was thinking of
> starting an initiative for my University, but I got some push back saying
> that engaging in these programs would just encourage those who can afford it
> to just continue using as much energy as they want.
>
> Sandy
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Organizations and the Natural Environment Discussion
> [mailto:
ONE-L@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU] On Behalf Of Dale Fitzgibbons
> Sent: Friday, April 20, 2007 10:46 AM
> To:
ONE-L@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU
> Subject: Super Bowl strives to be carbon-neutral
>
> Super Bowl strives to be carbon-neutral
>
> Associated Press
>
>
>
>
>
>
> The NFL's first serious attempt at a green Super Bowl did not go well.
> "All we did was recycle, and it was a disaster," said Jack Groh, director of
> the league's environmental program.
> The year was 1994, when many special events paid little attention to
> recycling. The venue was the Georgia Dome. Groh, in his first year
> consulting with the league, found some volunteers and went about the task
> the hard way.
> "What we eventually decided on was taking all the bags of trash from the
> stadium, bringing them down to the loading dock, breaking them open, and
> then hand picking all the cans and the bottles out of this really disgusting
> and miserable garbage," Groh said. "It was awful. It was inefficient. It was
> costly. It was time consuming. It was messy and dirty, and it didn't yield
> enough of a return to make it worthwhile."
> The following year, the NFL came up with mission statement: Make the Super
> Bowl greener, but do it using the same type of sound business practices that
> have helped make the game itself so popular.
> As a result, the biggest of the big games has become more environmentally
> friendly with each passing year. The Indianapolis Colts' victory over the
> Chicago Bears in Miami in January will be remembered by many as the first
> rainy Super Bowl, but Groh has another adjective for it: carbon-neutral.
>
> "Everybody and their uncle is starting to talk about being carbon-neutral
> and carbon mitigation," Groh said. "Five years ago, before Al Gore was doing
> his power-point presentation, we already were trying to address it."
> The NFL's list of eco-friendly measures from this year's Super Bowl is long
> and impressive - and surprisingly cost-effective:
> - Leftover food. Up to 60,000 pounds of extra food was left over from all
> the banquets, parties and luncheons. These weren't leftovers in the
> traditional sense - this was prepared food that was cooked in kitchens, but
> never made it out to the serving tables. The NFL distributed the food to
> soup kitchens, shelters, churches and other organizations.
> "If you don't recover it, it turns into 30 tons of garbage," Groh said.
> "You'd have to pay to haul it to a landfill. You have to pay tipping fees
> and dump it there. It's a pretty costly proposition to dispose of 30 tons of
> garbage."
> - Leftover stuff. Miami was decorated with 5 miles of fabric in the form of
> steamers, banners and other decorations. The league could have filled a
> tractor-trailer or two - and a lot of landfill space - with its leftover
> office supplies, building materials and various things bearing the Super
> Bowl logo.
> "Everything that could be salvaged, we would salvage it," Groh said.
> "Inventory it, and distribute it primarily to local non-profits."
> - Recycling. The NFL recycled dozens of tons of cardboard at the stadium.
> (Drinks were served in plastic souvenir cups, so most people took them
> home.) Aluminum, plastic, glass and mounds of paper were recycled at the
> media center, where some 3,500 reporters sifted through a week's worth of
> news releases. Tons of wood was recycled from the NFL Experience theme park.
>
> - Negating greenhouse gases: Two years ago, the NFL went to the Oak Ridge
> National Laboratory in Tennessee to find out how much carbon dioxide had
> been spewed into the atmosphere because of the Super Bowl in Jacksonville.
> The answer wasn't as bad as the league thought. For example, the ships used
> for temporary hotels didn't count - they would have been pumping greenhouse
> gases on cruises elsewhere if not at the Super Bowl.
> Still, the lab said that the NFL's fleet of 2,000 vehicles and the
> electricity at the stadium helped contribute to a final tally of 1 million
> pounds of carbon dioxide.
> "They said in the big scheme of things, that's not a lot of greenhouse gas,"
> Groh said. "But you guys made it, you guys are responsible for it."
> To make up for its mess, the NFL is planting 3,000 trees in the Miami area,
> mostly in large groups to maximize the carbon-negating effect. The most
> notable project is planned for next month, when 500 native species trees are
> to be planted to help reclaim the Dinner Key Spoil Islands near Miami.
> Groh said the NFL spent only $2,500 on making this year's Super Bowl green.
> The league relied on local resources, volunteers and donations from
> organizations such as the U.S. Forest Service. Groh said the league
> deliberately did not want to practice what he called "checkbook
> environmentalism," in which a rich group simply writes a check and leaves
> town.
>
http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/6706682?MSNHPHCP>1=9331
> Super Bowl XLI Environmental Program:
>
http://www.superbowl.com/features/environmental-program
>
>
>
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>
Research Associate
Environmental Science and Policy Program
http://www.environment.msu.edu/research/programs/business_env.html