Carbon Offsetting

Carbon offsetting. It sounds pretty cool, right? Who wouldn’t want to offset their carbon footprint and do their bit to help fight the effects of climate change? We hear you and we’re with you; that’s why we offer an “Offsetter” ekko membership, which includes ekko offsetting the carbon for your spend on your ekko debit card. But what does “offsetting” actually mean?

It turns out, like many things, that carbon offsetting is a bit more complex than simply hitting that button to pay, and ta-dah, the carbon is gone! It’s important that we know what happens when we say we’re going to offset the carbon of a purchase, for example, so that we’re all empowered by the knowledge of what this process actually looks like, and we can make informed decisions when it comes to how we spend and where we spend.

Before we go any further into the world of offsetting carbon, we want to say that of course, the very best thing we can do for the environment is not to produce additional carbon. Making changes and swaps like walking or riding a bike to get somewhere instead of taking the car, eating less meat, and making more sustainable purchases – and fewer purchases – all help to put less carbon out there.

Even with making changes and better purchase decisions, we still need to reduce and remove the carbon in our environment if we are to reach the goal of net-zero by 2050; we need to halve the world’s carbon emissions by 2030 and then halve them again every decade after that and offset the residual emissions. That’s going to take a lot of work. The more we understand and share about carbon reduction and offsetting, the better position we’re in to do something about it.

There are two types of carbon offsetting projects: reduction and removal. They are exactly what they sound like – one reduces the amount of carbon in the environment and the other removes it from the environment. Both have an important role to play as we work towards the goal of net-zero.

Reduction projects include things like cleaner cooking and travel, and removal projects include rewilding, planting trees, and carbon storage.

There’s no real regulation when it comes to offsetting carbon, so transparency of the projects being invested in is one of the best ways for you as a customer to know what is really happening when you or a company pay to offset the carbon of a purchase. Organisations like Gold Standard give a really good insight into the different kinds of projects that are available to invest in when it comes to offsetting your carbon. 

At ekko, we share directly with our Offsetter members each month which projects have been invested in, so they are empowered with the knowledge of how they have contributed to reducing and removing carbon from the environment because each individual can make a real positive difference to the world we live in. Want to learn more about ekko memberships and how you can make a #PositiveChange? Check them out here