CARBON OFFSET - FAQ
Here are the answers to frequently asked questions about carbon offsetting. Do you have any further questions - please contact us and we'll help you.
1. Why buy carbon offset?
The choice to carbon offset is a way to take responsibility for the emissions that businesses and other organizations cannot eliminate through their own emission-reducing measures.
2. What is carbon offsetting?
Most businesses, products and services generate emissions of greenhouse gases. If you wish to take responsibility for these emissions, you can calculate the volume of emissions and then implement measures to reduce them. However, there will still be a certain amount of emissions that are not covered. To take responsibility for this remaining volume of emissions, you can compensate the climate impact through carbon offsetting, which is a carbon reduction made by implementing measures to cover the equivalent volume of carbon elsewhere. The money for the “climate compensation” is used, for example, to build wind power plants in developing countries. This helps reduce the demand for electricity from coal-fired power plants while simultaneously contributing to sustainable development.
3. Isn’t carbon offsetting simply a form of “buying your way out"?
Carbon offsetting is sometimes compared to the medieval practice of buying a “letter of indulgence”, which involved donating money to the church in the hope that one’s sins would be forgiven – and then continuing to sin. The comparison is based on the idea that climate compensation is a way to buy a good conscience without having to change one’s behavior. If a company bases its climate strategy exclusively on carbon offsetting, then there may be some justification in accusing this company of having bought its way out of its responsibility. However, if a company includes carbon offsets in a climate strategy that also comprises measures to reduce climate impact, then it should rather be viewed as an attempt to shoulder the full weight of the company’s climate responsibility. So the question of whether carbon offsets can be compared to buying a letter of indulgence has nothing to do with the carbon offsets itself; it is purely a matter of whether the company that is carbon offsetting views this as a way to lower the level of ambition in its other work to protect the climate.
4. What does Tricorona do?
Tricorona is a world leader in developing carbon offset projects , with more than a hundred active UN-registered projects, and hundreds more under development. The projects are principally centered on the generation of renewable energy and the implementation of energy-efficiency measures in developing countries – i.e. projects that change the everyday lives of millions of people by providing better access to energy, improved health through reduced local pollution, and creates many job opportunities. Many of the projects are also based on Swedish environmental technology, thus promoting one of Sweden’s most important export industries. Over and above these climate projects, Tricorona provides consultancy services to help companies lower their carbon emissions and helps develop ambitious climate strategies.
http://www.tricorona.se/lang.php?lang=en 5. What is CDM/Gold Standard?
CDM and Gold Standard are two different types of certifications of carbon offset projects. CDM stands for “Clean Development Mechanism” and is a system developed by the UN under the Kyoto Protocol. The system was developed to provide industrialized countries with a secure way to accept their climate responsibility and provide developing countries with financial support for sustainable development. Gold Standard is another certification developed by over 60 non government organizations including WWF International and Greenpeace International. To achieve this certification, companies have to fulfill additional requirements in the areas of social responsibility, local deployment and sustainability.
6. How does it work in practice? What happens when, as a guest at Clarion Hotel Stockholm, you choose to buy carbon offset? What are you actually paying for?
When you, as a guest, choose to offset a night at the hotel, for example, an extra charge of less than SEK 5 per night will be added to your bill. This extra charge is used to offset the climate impact of the room. The same applies when to climate compensated conferences or visits to the restaurant. The money is then used to buy an amount of carbon reductions or carbon offset – corresponding to the amount of climate impact generated by your visit, conference, or meal – from the carbon offset project that Clarion has chosen to support. In this case, the project is a CDM and Gold Standard-certified Sri Balaji biomass project in India. Emissions attributable to your visit to the Clarion hotel are thus offset through corresponding emission reductions via the Sri Balaji project. The money for the carbon offset in Sweden makes possible the continued development of sustainable projects in India, China, Africa and South America, for example.
http://www.tricorona.se/7/192/
7. Does Clarion Hotel Stockholm carbon offset?
We at Clarion Hotel Stockholm consider it important to take our own climate responsibility, while simultaneously allowing our customers to make smart climate choices. That is why we have decided to carbon offset our own business travels as the first step in our new climate strategy.
8. How have you calculated the volumes of emissions for the carbon offset-services you provide?
The calculations are as follows. One guest night at the hotel has been calculated at 9 kg CO2e. This is the share of the hotel’s total calculated emissions for 2009 (2,150 tons CO2e) that can be attributed to the climate impact from a guest night (1,190 tons CO2e) divided by the total number of guest nights for the year (130,471). The emissions for a conference guest have been calculated as being 12 kg CO2e. This is the share of the hotel’s total calculated emissions for 2009 (2,150 tons CO2e) that can be attributed to the climate impact from a conference guest (679 tons CO2e) divided by the total number of conference guests for the year (58,892).