About

CO2Balance was founded in 2003 to provide a completely ethical and transparent means of carbon offset for businesses and individuals. co2balance also exists to provide businesses and individuals with easily accessible information on how to reduce and mitigate their contributions to climate change. We are a full-service climate change consultancy advising business on greenhouse gas audits, carbon reduction strategies, energy mapping and external reduction strategies.

We calculate your carbon footprint, advise you how to minimize it and then offset the residue. We don’t believe that it’s right to ignore the unavoidable residual emissions. Carbon offsetting works by investing funds to absorb or prevent the emission of a tonnage of CO2 equivalent to the client’s unavoidable greenhouse gas emissions. This is done by investing in projects that avoid carbon emissions through  energy efficiency or renewable energy or that absorb atmospheric CO2 (forestry-based offsets).

We will be the first to accept that carbon offsetting is not the answer to global climate change BUT we strongly believe that it has an important part to play while new technologies are introduced and become widespread and while new behaviours and altered (low carbon) lifestyles become commonplace. 

We follow Six Golden Rules:

Rule 1
We do not buy carbon offsets from other organisations. All offsets offered to our clients are in projects initiated and controlled by co2balance.

Rule 2
Offset projects based on energy efficiency must occur in countries or communities where the majority of energy (or marginal generation) currently comes from fossil fuels.

Rule 3
Forestry offsets must occur on land in the ownership of the offset organisation. co2balance only plants offset trees on land in their ownership to ensure that their long-term future is secure and that the woodland will be managed in perpetuity.

Rule 4
Offset trees must be harvested before they die. If trees that have been planted to absorb carbon dioxide are allowed to die and rot, some of the greenhouse gases will be released back into the atmosphere.

Rule 5
Minimisation of energy use and reduction of your carbon footprint should come before offsetting.

Rule 6
All offset projects must be additional. It is useless to invest in a project that would have happened anyway as you have not made a difference. 

Strategy

co2balance has been CarbonZero since its inception in 2003. We continually monitor our greenhouse gas emissions and strive to find ways to minimise them. Around 95 per cent of our business travel is undertaken by public transport. Where business travel must be undertaken by car, staff are encouraged to own and operate efficient vehicles through the use of an innovative structure offering the highest payments per mile for the most efficient cars. Around 90 per cent of our waste is recycled, and food waste is composted in the office garden, which is watered using only rainwater captured from the roof.

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