How to Offset Your Emissions
Five steps are all you need to offset your emissions.
Along the way, you also get to choose your contribution to sustainable development.
Get to Know Your Carbon Footprint
We all have a carbon footprint – climate change means we have to reduce it
Knowing your footprint helps you work out the carbon credits needed to offset your emissions
Personal Carbon Footprint
For a personal footprint, you can use online calculators with your own actual data, or simply use the national average emissions per person for where you live:
- For Australia, in September 2022 it was 18.88 tonnes of CO2 equivalent (tCO2e) per person (490.5 MtCO2e/ 25,978,935 people).
- Round up to 20 tonnes and you’ve offset more than Australia’s per capita emissions.
We don’t endorse any particular emissions calculator.
Things to consider before using a calculator include:
- is it country specific?
- are the correct emission factors used?
- is it up to date?
Remember to round up to at least the next full tonne:
- We don’t sell partial tonnes as all our carbon offsets have serial numbers for each tonne issued by either Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) and Gold Standard.
- For example, if the Australian average emissions per person per year is 18.88 tCO2e, you will need to buy at least 19 tonnes.
- Beyond that, you could make it a nice round 20 tonnes for an extra couple of dollars.
Business Carbon Footprint
To work out a carbon footprint for a business, your emissions need to be identified and calculated in an accurate and credible way.
You have several options:
- resources like Australia’s National Greenhouse Accounts Factors (NGAF) and your own data (electricity, fuel, etc), or
- use an online calculator after reality-testing its accuracy and assumptions, or
- you can use Beyond Neutral‘s expertise and experience developing and assessing 100’s of carbon footprints.
Beyond selling Gold Standard and VCS carbon offsets, we can help develop your organisation’s or company’s voluntary carbon footprint or mandatory NGERS’ emissions inventory.
Making Claims
If you want to make claims after you have offset your emissions, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) identifies 8 Principles for trustworthy environmental claims (Making Environmental Claims: A Guide for Business, 12 Dec 2023).
Explain any conditions on claims.
Don’t hide important information.
Make accurate and truthful claims.
Have evidence to back up your claims.
Avoid broad and unqualified claims.
Use clear and easy to understand language.
Be direct and open about sustainability transition.
Visual elements shouldn’t give the wrong impression.
A quality carbon footprint developed specifically for your business
Working with our clients to develop their carbon footprint, we take into account their specific needs, helping them with all aspects of the carbon footprinting process.
Beyond Neutral offers a full carbon service, beyond carbon offsets and footprints.
We provide clear and accessible advice to improve your understanding of this jargon rich field.
If you wish to make any claims about carbon neutrality, then you need a credible carbon footprint.
What Can You Achieve?
Now you know your footprint, what do you want to achieve from using carbon credits to offset your emissions?
How far do you want to move along the emissions and sustainability axes?
How Far Will You Go When You Offset Your Emissions?
Do you want to offset:
- Aspects of your lifestyle/ business (e.g. vehicles, electricity use, travel, etc).
- This year’s carbon footprint.
- Your historic emissions.
- More than your footprint, moving beyond carbon neutral.
You can be an active participant and a part of the climate solution, where you have a greater climate impact than just your footprint.
Sustainability Beyond Carbon – Credits Do More Than Just Offset Your Emissions
Carbon offsets sold by Beyond Neutral enable you to choose aspects of sustainability you want to support (environmental, social, economic) while addressing climate change.
Choose from a selection of carbon offsets across the 3 themes: Renewables | People | Forests.
Our Carbon Shop identifies over 40 sustainability tags and 17 projects have been verified as contributing to 3 or more of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
You can support sustainability outcomes even if:
- A low carbon credit cost is the primary focus.
- You want to achieve sustainability outcomes at an average price per tonne that doesn’t blow the budget.
Maximise the sustainability dividend you achieve by buying your tonnes from a mix of projects.
You can target a particular outcome you want to support, e.g. better health, access to schooling, biodiversity protection, clean water, improving living conditions, etc.
Our Carbon Shop enables you to filter sustainability outcomes, locations and project types
Contact Us and we will tailor a carbon offset solution to meet your specific criteria and goals
Explore our Current Stock
Achieve your environmental and sustainability goals at a price that meets your economic criteria
Choose from projects focused on Renewables | People | Forests.
You can choose to buy your carbon credits from a single project or across several.
Buying carbon offsets from several different projects offers a greater range of sustainability outcomes.
A wide range of projects is available – select your preferred mix of climate change and sustainability outcomes.
Mix lower cost and high sustainability projects – achieve your desired average price while contributing to UN Sustainable Development Goals.
You can buy carbon credits from the projects listed in our Current Stock via our Carbon Shop.
Want a larger quantity of carbon offsets, or to explore other options, or need a formal quote? We are here to help.
Larger Quantities and Unusual Requests
We will provide you with a personalised list of projects meeting your criteria, whatever they are:
- tonnage
- location
- project type
- vintage
- Standard
- price per tonne
For larger quantities, the voluntary carbon offset market can be highly dynamic
Using our suppliers and the spot market, we ensure you are getting the most up-to-date listings and pricing
Buying Carbon Offsets
Once you know your carbon footprint and the carbon credits you want,
you need to buy them
Beyond Neutral’s Carbon Shop is an e-commerce solution for buying verified, voluntary climate solutions.
Our aim is to make buying carbon offsets easy
Use our Carbon Shop to buy carbon credits online today!
If you want a more personalised service, contact us.
Retirement or Transfer?
When you buy carbon credits, they need to be retired by Beyond Neutral on your behalf.
- Alternatively, we can transfer them to you if you have an account with the appropriate Registry: Verra’s VCS Registry or Gold Standard’s Impact Registry.
Do We Sell Part-tonnes?
In short, no.
Whatever your carbon footprint is, simply round it up to the next full tonne:
- For example, to offset the average Australian footprint of 18.88 tCO2e means you would need to buy 19 tonnes.
- You can also go past neutral and become an active part of the solution (e.g. buy 20 tonnes).
Each Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) and Gold Standard carbon credit represents 1 tonne of CO2e.
Each credit is issued with a unique serial number that is extinguished when the carbon offset is retired, never to be used again.
You are always provided with the serial numbers of all the tonnes retired on your behalf.
We do not sell part-tonnes so the carbon offsets you buy and retire are yours’ alone, with no chance of being retired twice.
Buying Carbon Offsets to Meet Australia’s Climate Active Requirements?
Ensure the carbon units you are purchasing are “eligible offset units” as defined by the Climate Active Carbon Neutral Standard.
- All carbon credits sold by Beyond Neutral, either through our Carbon Shop or by formal quote are “eligible offset units” under the Climate Active Carbon Neutral Standard.
- The Gold Standard and VCS (Verified Carbon Standard) carbon offsets we sell are eligible for use under Climate Active.
- All have a vintage of 2013+ (2013 or more recent).
If buying carbon offsets for use in another carbon neutral scheme, please check that the carbon credits you are buying meet that scheme’s requirements.
Contact us if you would like us to seek out projects listed by your scheme – we will match our offer to what you need.
If your purchase is not a part of any particular scheme, you have the freedom to choose your carbon credits.
Retire Your Carbon Offsets
After buying carbon credits, they need to be retired in the relevant Registry – they can then be claimed as an offset against your emissions
Beyond Neutral will do this for you at no additional cost and we will provide you with plenty of evidence when it is done
Offset Retirement
The carbon offsets will be permanently retired through either Verra’s VCS Registry or Gold Standard’s Impact Registry.
Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) and Gold Standard carbon credits are both tracked using unique serial numbers.
Retirement of the carbon offsets is permanent, with the serial number extinguished so the offsets are never able to be double-counted or on-sold.
Once the offsets are retired, no further changes can be made to the retirement details so the name and retirement message need to be correct and agreed at the time of retirement.
Can I See the Retirement?
Retired credits are able to be viewed by anyone through the relevant Registry, either Verra’s VCS Registry or Gold Standard’s Impact Registry.
You can search by serial number, project number, project name, country, etc.
Details about the retirement other than the retiree’s name and the retirement message are always publicly listed on the relevant Registry.
Beyond Neutral’s default position (our preference which we strongly recommend) is that all retirement details, including name and message, be publicly viewable on the Registry.
Public listing is a mandatory requirement for Climate Active participants.
What Documentation Supports the Retirement?
When retiring your carbon credits, we will need to know the name the retirement is to be made on behalf of, and your preferred retirement message.
Once your carbon offsets are retired, you will receive sufficient documentation providing clear evidence that they have been retired.
- If you are a Climate Active participant, the documentation supplied will meet their, and your verifier’s, requirements.
The documentation contains information on the quantity and serial numbers of the offsets retired, the date of retirement, the offset project’s details, who retired the offsets and why.
Visit our Carbon Store
All the projects sold by Beyond Neutral are accredited under either VCS or Gold Standard , so the offset you buy has been created by a project:
- that follows a specific methodology;
- has been verified as having occurred by one of that Standard’s third party verification bodies; and
- is tracked in that Standard’s Registry using a unique serial number from issuance until retirement on your behalf.
