Offsets are used when there are some emissions you can’t quite eliminate yet. They involve helping someone else reduce their emissions or take up some of the carbon dioxide you emitted, so that your overall total is lower, or even zero.
Offsets are an interim option while we all move toward living fully carbon-free, but they are not an excuse to continue emitting. Eventually, we all have to stop burning carbon entirely. Don’t buy into any corporation claiming to offset all their emissions so that they are net zero, while they continue business as usual- they are not moving forward to the kind of future we all want.
If you’d like to take advantage of offsets to do as much good as you can, make sure they are high quality, and preferably certified. Here are some options:
- Terrapass
- For a Colorado-based option (but not certified), see Routt County’s Climate Action Fund
- The Good Traveler program will offset your flights
- Find more green-e certified options here.
Or simply donate to a nature-based solutions organization that works in Colorado like The Nature Conservancy, The Arbor Day Foundation, Trees Water People, The Sierra Club, the Colorado Nature League, or Conservation Colorado.