Mitigate - Carbon Footprint
Offset unavoidable greenhouse gas emissions to become carbon neutral
Reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is the fundamental principle guiding the carboNZero programme. However, it is not possible for an organisation to reduce all of their GHG emissions.
To achieve carboNZero certification, you need to mitigate, or offset, your remaining unavoidable emissions with carbon credits, to create a net zero emissions balance. This is done through the purchase of verified and high quality carbon credits.
What is a carbon credit? One carbon credit is equivalent to one tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e) emissions.
Carbon credits are awarded to defined projects that:
- Avoid GHG emissions through renewable energy generation
- Reduce GHG emissions through energy efficiency initiatives
- Sequester or store GHGs such as through regeneration of native forest or methane capture
Each project that avoids, reduces, or sequesters GHGs must be additional to business-as-usual, meaning that they can demonstrate that the project would not have occurred if there was no revenue from creation of the carbon credits being claimed.
Carbon credit quality - not all credits are equal
To ensure the integrity of carboNZero certification, carbon credits used for offsetting must be of high quality and align to key principles (see the table below), including:
- Issued under a voluntary or compliance standard recognised by the Programme
- Generated by a project that has been assessed and approved as being suitable for offsetting by the Programme
- Issued in a recognised registry
- Retired, cancelled or otherwise taken out of circulation in the Programme account in the appropriate registry
In developing our assessment process, we have taken into account regulations that are being developed by various governments. There are numerous publications where the quality of offsets or carbon credits is debated. The use of poor quality offsets is often the basis on which accusations of “greenwash” are made. Claims of carbon neutrality based on offsets that do not meet the requirements of recognised standards may be subject to investigation by regulators of advertising standards or consumer protection laws, therefore it is important to ensure good quality credits are used.
Carbon credit registries
Enviro-Mark Solutions holds accounts in several external carbon credit registries as the means to publicly cancel or retire credits used to offset member emissions during the carboNZero certification process. The carboNZero programme opts to publicly disclose each transaction on these registers ensuring our carbon credit operations are fully transparent and traceable. The carboNZero programme is one of the only NZEUR participants that actually cancels credits – meaning the credits are permanently cancelled against an individual or organisation and cannot be double counted — rather than trading them as a commodity.
- Markit Registry (direct link to public view)
- Gold Standard Registry (managed by Markit; direct link to public view)
- NZ Emissions Unit Register (direct link to public view)
- APX VCS registry (direct link to public view)
Enviro-Mark Solutions relies on registries to satisfy some of the key principles for offsetting such as traceability and transparency, as shown in the table below.
Key principles of offsetting and how they are satisfied
| Principle | Registry or Standard | Explanation |
|---|---|---|
| Additional | Standard | The credit standard should ensure that the project overcomes investment barriers by requiring appropriate additionality tests to be performed |
| Permanent | Standard | The standard should ensure the emissions reductions will be effective for at least 100 years |
| Leakage | Standard | The standard should ensure that the additional or unintended emissions will not take place as a result of the project’s implementation and operations |
| Measurable | Standard | The standard should ensure an appropriate methodology for measuring the emissions reductions generated by the project is used |
| Verifiable | Standard | The standard should ensure the credits claimed are verified by an accredited verifier |
| Traceable | Registry | A registry should have systems in place to ensure a user can track any credit back to the source project and demonstrate that there has been no double counting |
| Transparent | Registry | A registry should require sufficient documentation showing how the credit was created and/or provide references to source this from outside the registry |
Standards
Most carbon credits available on the global carbon markets are based on either compliance or voluntary standards. Good standards will cover the principles listed in the table above. There are some carbon credits within the voluntary market that are based on no established standard. The Programme reviews and assesses carbon credits at the project level. This means that the standard and the project are assessed, i.e., not all carbon credit projects from an acceptable credit standard will be accepted by the carboNZero Programme for offsetting.
What credits does the programme use?
The programme sources a portfolio of credits from:
- a range of compliance and voluntary standards including the Verified Carbon Standard, Gold Standard, and Joint Implementation (JI)
- range of countries including New Zealand, China, Thailand, India, and other
- range of project types (e.g. renewable energy generation, forest sequestration, landfill methane capture)
 |  |  |
| Windfarm development avoids business-as-usual fossil fuel electricity generation | Landfill gas capture prevents business-as-usual release of emissions to the atmosphere | Forest regeneration that is additional to the business-as-usual land use captures and stores atmospheric carbon |
Additional benefits of carbon credits
The purchase of quality carbon credits also benefits the larger community. Research conducted by the International Carbon Reduction and Offset Alliance (ICROA) shows that "offsetting one tonne of carbon dioxide brings an additional $664 in benefits to the communities where carbon reduction projects are based", which is impressive given a tonne of carbon is typically under $20 (see details here). So not only do businesses purchasing the offsets neutralise their carbon footprint and therefore reduce their impact on the global climate, but they also provide social and community benefits.
The carboNZero programme has seen evidence of this with two New Zealand projects. The programme regularly uses credits from two Permanent Forest Sink Initiatives (PFSI) in Pigeon Bush (near Wellington) and Hinewai (near Akaroa in Banks Peninsula). The PFSI projects are permanent carbon sinks of native forest. The landowners agree to permanently retire the land and allow it to regenerate to native forest, and in return are able to sell carbon credits from the verified carbon sink. The carboNZero programme is one of the primary supporters of these voluntary credit projects, providing these as New Zealand credit options for its clients and in its community calculators.
The suppliers at Pigeon Bush and Hinewai have reported to the carboNZero programme that this income from carbon sales has helped the owners of the land to look at purchasing more land for restoration, therefore extending the area of the carbon sinks. The Native Forest Restoration Trust, owners of Pigeon Bush, have been able to hire a general manager to formalise management of their sites, help with maximising the success of the sites in term of regrowth and conservation, and oversee communications and news.
Learn more about Hinewai Reserve from this video: