Offsetting? This deserves it's own thread but I guess it can share this one: http://www.cheatneutral.com/

Excellent site. Language and concepts that anyone (other than a sociopath) would understand.

i wonder how easy it is to set up an offset company/organisation. i know if i was running an operation i wouldn't send the money abroad, i'd develop a fund to support development of renewable technology and don't panic i don't mean useless wind turbines in urban zones. i'd also lobby for a renewable energy feed in tariff, and invest in uk small business... someone has to !!
i also think if people are going to pay the carbon-offset tax then they should be able to input a code for their preferred scheme rather than have to go along with the sellers choice.
maybe i should set up eatneutral before christmas so all those over-indulging can offset the beer, fags n fatty meals.

I am not a fan of offsetting but appreciate it may be a last resort or only option for certain people or organisations. When i was studying the Kyoto Protocol i got hung up on the idea of emissions trading. A scheme that lets countrys who are not going to be able to stay within their limits buy emissions from countries who will not exceed their 1990 levels. This is of course flawed as in 1990 India and China weren't as bigger players as they are now and communist Russia had just collapsed leaving a huge industrial vacumn in the country which has left them with easy targets.

My point is if we keep passing these emissions down the chain of participants what happens when it gets to the bottom and there is nowhere for it to go? It just seems that the age old idea of throwing money at something to make it better may have been taken a little too literally in this case.

On the subject of London which was mentioned in the first post, i was there the weekend just gone and informed that the congestion charge is not enforced on weekends. Surely if they are serious about emissions reduction this should be in place 24/7?

I totally disagree with offsetting - the cheatneutral site is great summary of why. As Keith said in the greenbuilding magazine (and I use the quote in my presentations regularly) 'Nothing can replace positive action'

Posted By: John @ evieeI am not a fan of offsetting but appreciate it may be a last resort or only option for certain people or organisations

The problem is, it is used by many business at the moment to make bold green claims about products, not as a last resort. 'carbon zero' loft insulation, 'carbon zero' cladding etc - it serves to confuse and mislead, and miss the issues in hand beyond one small factor (carbon emissions). For the less well informed (or for the cash hungry business), it is easy to get suckered in.

This misleading (green wash, eco-bollocks whatever you want to call it) over claims such as this has now pervaded many of our fundamental 'mainstream' understandings - look at the latest BRE Green Guide as an example.

We end up with products that are marketed as 'carbon zero' and green - yet use huge amounts of energy and resources to make and emit pollution during manufacture or are un-recyclable or toxic. We end up with uPVC windows being 'A' rated and the UPVC trade having a huge marketing push on being 'green' - despite the fact that it contains some of the worlds nastiest chemicals, and despite claims of 'recyclability upto 10x', there is no post-use recycling of uPVC in the UK!

Are we allowed rants on here?