The world urgently needs action on climate change. Organisations around the world, including the United Nations, are promoting the need to transition to a climate-neutral society. Time is critical, and the more climate positive actions we can take now, the better.
That goes for individuals and companies alike; we all need to address our emissions. By changing our habits and buying environmentally friendly products, we can help to minimise our carbon footprint. Yet we can't quite erase it entirely as everything from streaming music, charging our phones or traveling somewhere comes with a carbon cost. That's where carbon offsetting comes in. It's an effective way of addressing those emissions you simply can't cut down on, or avoid right now.
The calculations leverage the Greenview Hotel Footprinting Tool, which allows you to calculate the carbon footprint of a hotel stay or use of hotel meeting space anywhere around the world.
The Tool calculates the carbon footprint for hotel stays using the Hotel Carbon Measurement Initiative (HCMI) methodology. HCMI is industry standard for measuring and comparing scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions of hotels. HCMI was created by the Sustainable Hospitality Alliance and the World Travel & Tourism Council, and was tested and refined through stakeholder engagement and a review by the World Resources Institute (WRI) – one of the GHG Protocol development Partners.
Additionally, the Tool uses underlying data from the Cornell Hotel Sustainability Benchmarking (CHSB) index 2021 -- the industry’s global data collection and benchmarking initiative providing data from 15,000 hotels worldwide.The Greenview Hotel Footprinting Tool aggregates data to show the median carbon footprint in particular geographical locations, with the choice of hotel class by number of stars. The resulting estimates support companies in calculating the carbon footprint associated with business travel hotel stays for the purposes of Scope 3 reporting and offsetting OR in sharing additional information with clients on whose behalf a company is booking or offsetting travel. For more information on the data set and analysis, please refer to https://greenview.sg/services/greenview-hotel-footprinting-tool.
Source: Greenview Hotel Footprinting Tool Version 2021v1.1 (adapted from CHSB2021 data set of 2019 calendar year data) (edited)
When people and organisations offset their carbon footprint, funds paid are used to support projects that reduce, capture, or avoid greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions in an amount equivalent to that of their calculated carbon footprint. The funds paid are dedicated to purchasing and canceling third-party certified carbon offsets. The carbon offsets made available on this platform are Voluntary Emission Reduction (VER) units, certified by various credible and internationally recognised carbon certification standards such as the VCS, the Gold Standard, American Carbon Registry, and Climate Action Reserve, as well as Certified Emissions Reduction (CER) units certified by the United Nations. The offset price paid is the total cost to deliver the carbon offset.
Each carbon offset (or carbon credit) represents 1 tonne of greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions, in carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalent, that has been reduced, captured, or avoided through the implementation of a project activity that would not have taken place without the sale of carbon offsets. The terms "carbon offset" and "carbon credit" can be used interchangeably.
Carbon offsets are issued by independent carbon certification bodies once a project has demonstrated it has reduced, avoided, or captured emissions of carbon, following the guidance of the respective carbon certification body it is certified or registered with. Each emission reduction needs to meet basic principles to qualify as carbon offset: be additional, be measurable and auditable, be permanent, and be unique.
Emission reductions enabled by project activities and certified to a credible carbon certification body must adhere to the principle of “additionality” to be materialised and monetised as carbon offsets. This means that the projects are being implemented as a result of the (expected) proceeds from the sale of carbon offsets, enabling project developers to overcome the difficulties they face. In other words, organisations are not supporting a project that would have been carried out anyway.
The carbon offsets are funding additional carbon mitigation. Often, projects are not financially attractive to investors without the sale of these carbon offsets and would therefore not materialise. The additionality case is checked by third-party auditors and the respective carbon certification body at project inception.
Science is clear: a quantity of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions emitted in one place has the same global warming potential as the same quantity of GHG emissions emitted anywhere else. It is the same thing for a quantity of GHG emissions reduced or avoided. Climate change is happening due to the increasing concentration of GHG emissions in the atmosphere and it is of the utmost importance to reduce the pace at which GHG emissions enter the atmosphere. One way to do so is to support low-carbon and modern project activities that displace high-carbon and traditional alternative activities. In many sectors and countries, these low-carbon activities are uneconomical and face barriers that prevent them from taking place. As a result, they are allowed to sell carbon offsets, which enable projects to take place and reduce emissions. By offsetting its carbon emissions, an organisation is outsourcing emission reductions and mitigating climate change by supporting relevant project activities.
This service is hosted and delivered by climate-tech company CHOOOSE™, the trusted carbon partner of some of the world’s largest companies. CHOOOSE mission is to close the multi-gigaton gap between climate intention and climate action by designing products and climate programs with transparency and ease of use front and center. Founded in 2017 and headquartered in Oslo, Norway, CHOOOSE powers carbon compensation programs for partners across industries and across the globe.