Caveat Emptor, or "buyer beware," is the motto of today’s market for buyers looking to balance their carbon usage with a contribution to green activities. With many divergent groups offering a variety of attractive options, who knows how to judge good, better and best?

As many have discovered, trying to calculate your carbon footprint and then find a credible carbon offset can be a complicated process. But there are some questions that you as a consumer can ask to determine whether a particular offset is a good choice for you and your conscience. 

Questions about the permanence, additionality, leakage and standards (PALS) are the cornerstones of offset quality. Here are some of the questions you should ask when looking for an offset program:

Permanence

• Will the project be around long enough to actually capture the carbon over time and keep it there?
• Is there a reserve of carbon offsets to buffer for potential carbon losses resulting from storms or other natural events?

Additionality

• Would that work have happened anyway?
• Is the work being undertaken in the project a business-as-usual practice?

Your offset should be supporting projects that represent practices that would not have happened anyway, and therefore are not business-as-usual. These include efforts to protect and reforest land and to preserve old growth forests, where such practices are not business-as-usual.

Leakage

If the new carbon project is going to change the use of land from an old purpose to the new carbon storage purpose, is the old use of the land simply going to be displaced to an area that would have been forested?

Offset project developers should have a satisfactory response to this question that takes into account agricultural and timber markets, land-use changes, and the likelihood that re-planting trees in one location would move farming or logging operations to another location up the road or across the country.

Standards of verification

• What third party is verifying the quality of the offsets and holding the supplier to a high standard?
• How often will the project be measured and how will you the consumer be kept informed?

Groups like Voluntary Carbon Standard (VCS) developed standards for voluntary carbon offset projects. The approval of verifiers assessing a project against these standards can go a long way to assuring most buyers concerns are addressed.  The Climate, Community and Biodiversity Alliance (CCB) is another group offering third-party certification of offset project designs.

In addition to carbon measurements, CCB certification requires that voluntary carbon offset projects conserve biodiversity and support community development while storing or preventing the release of carbon.  

Follow Your PALS and Reduce Your Personal Emissions

By paying close attention to these offset “PALS,” consumers should be able to ask the questions that need to be answered to ensure the voluntary carbon offset programs that they contribute to have real and verifiable results when it comes to reducing the buildup of greenhouse gases that are causing climate change.

At the same time, don’t forget that the most effective personal action to help reduce the buildup of greenhouse gases that are causing climate change is to make choices that will reduce your personal greenhouse gas emissions.

Nature picture credits (top to bottom, left to right): Photo © Byron Jorjorian (flowers); Photo © Byron Jorjorian (old cypress).