The Internet makes almost everything easier these days – buying plane tickets, finding your true love, and managing your finances. But tread warily if you go online to reduce your carbon footprint, warns the Scotsman today.
“Carbon offsetting websites are inconsistent and confusing, with costs varying by up to 540 per cent,” says the Scotsman. The paper is referring to a new report by Which? Money, whereby the business paper found enormous variability in how a carbon offset provider calculates a carbon footprint, and how much they charge to reduce it.
Money investigated the websites of 13 UK-based carbon offset providers, and found carbon calculators estimated a person’s carbon footprint to be anything between 1 to over 7 tonnes. The UK government’s calculator found a happy medium at 4.31 tonnes.
The confusion is further compounded when one goes to buy offsets. Carbon Offsets, which we’ve listed here, charges £7 a tonne, while Carbon Responsible offsets for about £23.
Transparency was an issue in the report, as few companies gave detailed information on admin fees. The report found Climate Care to be the most transparent, noting that Blue Ventures Carbon Offset, PURE and the World Land Trust all earned a high rating.
A voluntary code of practice is set to go into effect this spring in the UK – hopefully one more step to making sense of the carbon offset business and giving consumers faith that their offset money is indeed going to worthy projects.
There was no mention of Carbon Catalog in the story, but this is exactly the reason for our existence. Shopping for carbon offsets online is still like shopping in a flea market. You have to know what you are looking for and be able to separate the wheat from the chaff.
Making your job easier, if you click here, you will find a list of carbon offset providers from around the world (who sell online), with their very own rating. Or click here to find 25 different UK offset providers. By mousing over the checkmarks, you can see our easy-to-grasp rating system, replete with explanations.
Ratings matter to the carbon offset providers listed on Carbon Catalog. They email us regularly with updates and negotiate over their final grade. We encourage you too to send us your own report card of carbon offset providers you have worked with in the online environment. Do they make the grade?
Carbon Catalog related ::Not to Profit, Part 2: UK’s PURE ::Interviews with non-profit offset providers from around the world
::Scotsman
(Image credit: Jurek)