Using carbon offsets
A key aim of achieving an environmentally-friendly lifestyle is to reach a zero carbon footprint.
In reality, it is virtually impossible to reach zero CO2 in “gross” terms, so this is where we bring in the concept of “net” zero. This means you get as close to true zero as possible and then “offset” the remaining emissions by contributing to various projects.
Of course, some people and businesses don’t really get with the spirit of the thing and continue to produce as much carbon as they want while purchasing offsets to claim “net zero”. That’s not really how it works, there’s a limit to how much carbon can realistically be extracted from the atmosphere in any reasonable length of time. But if you’re trying to reach as close to true zero as possible and just offsetting the rest, that’s a good place to be.
There are many dozens of different carbon offsetting projects that you can use to offset your own emissions, findable with a quickle internet search. In this post, I give examples of my favourite ones that I have personal experience with using. I can fully recommend any of these, but also I hope they act as inspiration for you to find others that you like the look of.
One Life One Tree
My favourite carbon offsetting project is One Life One Tree. This is an initiative thought up by a landowner in Buckinghamshire who planted 120 Giant Sequoia trees in a plot on his land, with each one sponsored by a contributor. The idea is that Giant Sequoias, otherwise known as giant redwood trees, are so large that by the time they reach maturity they will have captured enough CO2 from the atmosphere to completely offset one person’s lifetime emissions (hence the name).
Of course, it takes many many years for the tree to reach maturity (the largest trees in California are 2,000 – 3,000 years old), so three will still be capturing your lifetime’s emissions even after you’ve gone. By signing up, your money (£8 a month for 4 years) helps towards purchasing land which then gets put into a trust to ensure it can never be chopped down to build houses etc. You can help plant it yourself in sites along the west coast of England and Wales (where the wet climate is better for the redwoods), and then it of course gets looked after by the caretakers, and has a few native trees such as oaks planted with it.
This one is my favourite purely because I love the majestic redwood and love the idea of having more of them in the world and in the UK. I signed up in my young daughter’s name, and enjoy thinking of what the tree will look like when her grandkids are in their 80s (still a mere sapling compared to the California giants!).
Ecologi
This is a much broader scheme than One Life One Tree. Rather than being centred around one particular activity, Ecologi encompasses a great number of different activities, but broadly covering two themes.
The first place your money goes is into planting trees, specifically into planting mangroves in coastal Madagascar. This has several benefits: it immediately starts removing carbon from the atmosphere as the trees grow; the trees protect the inland from flooding and erosion, and restore a diverse habitat for fish and other creatures to live among the roots, and it provides employment for local people.
The second thing your money is used for is in longer-term projects that avoid future carbon emissions. This covers a great number of diverse projects such as investment in solar and other renewable energy facilities in developing countries; protecting rainforests from being destroyed, and providing cleaner-burning cooking stoves to some of the world’s poorest people.
With this carbon offsetting programme, you enter details that are used to automatically estimate your annual footprint (either individually or as a family), and then you make a monthly contribution that is enough to cover these emissions. Or of course you can choose to contribute more than that, or less to cover just what you can afford.
Trees for Life
The mission of this charity is to “re-wild” and restore the Caledonian Forest, the ancient, old-growth temperate rainforest that covered much of modern day Scotland. By the 1700s, the forest only remained in the wildest places due to human activity, and by the 1950s only 1% remained.
The work they do to restore this ancient resource includes planting millions of trees (nearly two million to date), as well as re-introducing wildlife such as the lynx and the red squirrel. You can support their work with any amount, one-off, or regularly and automatically.
Cool Earth
This aim of this organisation is to protect existing rainforest from being deforested. While this approach does not as such remove CO2 from the atmosphere, it does prevent the release of further carbon – as where deforestation takes place, woodland is often burned and the carbon stored in the soil churned up and released. The protection of virgin rainforest also helps with other important goals, such as protecting biodiversity. You can donate any amount, either as a one-off or regularly.