Carbon Offsetting plays an important part on your journey to Net Zero. Removing and reducing your companies emissions should be the first step in your journey to Net Zero, carbon offsetting should be the last step of your journey.

Carbon Offsetting refers to the process of increasing carbon sequestration, removing greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. Projects can range in scale, from very small to very large. All offsetting projects are important as they add up over time, but bear in mind that they can take many years to start having an impact on emissions removal.

Carbon offset projects have social and environmental benefits beyond greenhouse gas reductions. Co-benefits can include employment opportunities, improved air or water quality; habitat and biodiversity conservation; improved energy access; and better access to community education & health services. As such carbon offsets can be part of a comprehensive corporate social responsibility strategy, addressing both climate change and contribute to other public benefits.  

Methane destruction

  • Landfill. Kimble Sanitary Landfill Gas Project Kimble Company, Ohio, USA. The Project involves GHG emission reductions from the capture and destruction of landfill gas (LFG) through an open flare at Kimble Sanitary Landfill (Landfill) located in Dover, Ohio. 
  • Livestock. Farm Power Rexville Regional Digester  The Climate Trust – Washington. Installation of a manure digester which captures and combusts methane to generate electricity sold to the grid.  
  • Coal Mine. Elk Creek Coal Mine Methane Destruction & Utilisation Project, Colorado.  Previously methane drained from the coal mine was vented into the atmosphere. Under this project, methane is collected and combusted to generate electricity.

Industrial Gases

  • Ozone depleting substances. EOS 2013 Domestic, EOS Climate Inc., Texas. The project collected Ozone Depleting Substances refrigerant gases and destroyed them in an incineration plant. 
  • Nitrous Oxide Abatement Project. El Dorado Nitrogen, LP. The project involves the installation of a catalyst whose sole purpose is the decomposition of Nitrous Oxide. The catalyst does not consume electricity, steam, fuels or reducing agents to eliminate Nitrous Oxide emissions. Operating costs are relatively low and the overall energy balance of the plant is not affected. Installation is relatively simple and does not require new process units or redesign of existing ones. 

Forestry

  • Avoided Conversion. Pungo River Forest Conservation Project. Blue Source - North Carolina. Avoided conversion of 704 acres of pine and bottomland hardwoods. Land was cleared, ditched, drained and used for agriculture 40 years ago. Forests regenerated naturally since.  
  • Improved Forest Management. Conservation Forestry Program – Clifton Farm, Virginia. Ownership and management of timber resources was transferred to the Nature Conservancy.

Land Management

  • Peatland Restoration. Peatland ACTION is a national programme to restore peatlands across Scotland. Restoring peatlands is one of the most effective ways of locking in carbon; offering a clear nature-based solution to both the climate crisis and biodiversity loss.

Renewable Energy

  • Biomass/biogas. Sichuan Rural Poor-Household Biogas Development Programme.  Installation of household biogas digesters in low-income homes in the Sichuan province. Previously households used coal cooking. Biogas digesters recover methane from animal manure and use it for cooking replacing coal use. 
  • Solar/Wind/small-hydro. Rural Education for Development Society CDM Photovoltaic Lighting Project. Installation of 180,000 Photovoltaic lamps in 60,000 non-electrified homes in rural India.

Energy Efficiency

Improved Cookstove. Darfur Efficient Cook-stove Project. Replacement of traditional wood and charcoal stoves, emitting black carbon – the second biggest contributor to climate change, with energy-efficient liquified petroleum gas (LPG) cook stoves.

Note: the above example projects are offered to identify projects developed within the project type, but have not been reviewed by Greenhouse Gas Management Institute/Stockholm Environment Institute and are not endorsed in any way. 

More information on Carbon Offsetting can be found here: https://www.offsetguide.org