Voluntary offset programs Becoming carbon neutral can be complicated. While it is possible for lifestyle changes to reduce your carbon...
FAQs
We are a certified B Corporation – an organisation that has been independently assessed to meet the highest standards of social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability.
Trust, transparency and accountability are at the core of everything we do.
Unlike charities that operate with a general funding pool, our products and subscriptions clearly state the impact of your contribution. This is quantified either in terms of the number of tonnes of carbon dioxide that will be eliminated through verified carbon offsets, or the number of trees that will be planted.
You will receive a certification document for your offset or planted trees with a unique ID that can be used to verify your purchase.
For each carbon offset purchased, we procure an equivalent VERRA or Gold Standard accredited carbon offset on the global market. We’ll let you know what project your carbon offset has contributed to, and provide regular updates so you can keep track of your impact.
For each tree planted, we work with leading partners on the ground in each country and region. Our partners have the same values of accountability and transparency, and are regularly audited by both Carbon Co. and third parties to ensure that work is carried out to our high standards.
About 15% of our fees are used to cover the rest of our operating costs, such as boosting carbon awareness, product manufacturing, staffing and business costs.
We’re often asked how carbon offsets can be so affordable, and how our projects compare to other organisations that also provide offsets.
Firstly, let’s clarify that we don’t sacrifice on quality. Carbon offsets can be a murky world where it is difficult to ensure authenticity and on-the-ground impact. We therefore only procure carbon offsets that are internationally accredited and verified under standards such as VERRA and the Gold Standard. Anything less is not acceptable to us. You also receive a certification document with a unique ID, to help track your impact.
When procuring carbon offsets on the global market, we adopt a few strategies to ensure that we’re getting the best value:
1. A global approach – greenhouse gas emissions occur globally, and the effects of climate change are not constrained to national borders. There are limited carbon offsetting projects in Australia, so looking abroad often reduces our procurement costs. A solar project in a sunny part of the world that has cheaper land than Australia will result in lower carbon offset costs. We only consider internationally accredited projects to ensure maximum impact.
2. Economies of scale – as in almost any market, buying in bulk reduces our costs. Carbon offsets have a ‘wholesale’ price which we routinely purchase at or near.
Additionally, our costs are also lower due to our approach to profit taking, efficiency and expense management. Unlike some organisations with a large payroll and fancy offices, we adopt a minimalist approach that cuts our overhead expenditure. Our platform is built on automation and keeps our costs low.
Carbon Co. offsetting projects are selected on the basis of being:
Verifiable: a project must be subject to independent inspections and carbon offsets must be verified under an international accreditation system, such as VERRA or the Gold Standard. This ensures that every 1 tonne of carbon offset through Carbon Co. contributions results in 1 tonne of carbon eliminated.
Measurable: going hand in hand with verification, a project must be able to measure its impact accurately.
Dependency: we only fund projects that would not otherwise happen without funding from the carbon offset market. We do not fund projects that would have happened without carbon funding. This must be determined by an independent third party.
Socially responsible: we only fund projects that are socially and environmentally responsible. This means projects that support their local community, do not have ‘leakage’ in the form of other negative environmental impacts, and comply with workplace and modern slavery laws.
We only purchase VERRA and Gold Standard certified offsets as these are independently verified against these factors, and many more.
