Carbon offset purchases have become a popular vehicle for businesses that want to voluntarily reduce their carbon footprint and demonstrate their sustainability commitment. But not all projects that generate offsets are created equal. How can you verify that any given offset is what it seems to be?

First, some background: offsets—or emissions credits—are supposed to give purchasers assurance that a given amount of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions will be avoided, reduced, or removed from the atmosphere to compensate for some or all emissions engendered, in the case of business activities, by anything from industrial production to employee commutes. A carbon offset may be generated in many ways. TerraPass, our offset provider, uses landfill gas capture, farm power, and wind power projects.

Because most offset purchasers are not qualified to judge the relative merits of offset projects, they rely on certifications to ensure that they are making an investment with a measurable positive impact. The Nature Conservancy and other organizations that either certify or offer offsets recommend that you look for the following criteria before making a purchase:

• Permanence—basically, the life of the project. The most desirable projects go on indefinitely.
• Additionality—proof that the amount of carbon dioxide avoided, reduced, or stored by the project would not have been avoided, reduced, or stored without the project.
• Avoidance of leakage—emissions reduced within a project site that are simply displaced to another location. In the case of forestry projects, leakage can happen when carbon capture and storage at one site leads to land clearing elsewhere. Quality offsets do not result in leakage.
• Measurement and monitoring—otherwise known as, “show me the data.”
• Periodic third-party verification—to ensure that a project meets its intended goals and that all additionality, measurement, leakage, and permanence requirements are being fulfilled.

Feeling overwhelmed? Then just keep this in mind: real GHG emission reductions. Carbon offset projects should rely on tested and transparent methods for establishing an emissions baseline and calculating project-related GHG reductions. Also, offsets should be sold on the basis of documented reductions—that is, actual reductions, not promises of future action. The best way to ensure that’s the case is to make sure offsets have a respected, formal carbon standard certification.

Projects claiming to reduce or avoid GHG emissions and sell them in the marketplace can seek certification under any of more than 20 quality standards, some designed specifically for the voluntary (as opposed to the compliance) market. In the United States, three highly regarded voluntary carbon offset standards are the American Carbon Registry (ACR, both a standard and a registry), the Climate Action Reserve (CAR), and the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS). They determine whether the calculations and methods used by a project actually generate the claimed amount of offsets. Projects qualify for ACR, CAR, and VCS after being validated against the standards’ requirements by an accredited third party. Once validated and certified, offsets often are tracked in an independent registry like the CAR to ensure they aren’t double-sold or used beyond their valid lifetime.

How does our offset provider, TerraPass, get its street cred? By working directly with project developers to validate GHG reductions against the Voluntary Carbon Standard. TerraPass quantifies its VCS offsets using either the Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism or CAR landfill or livestock protocols.

The offsets you choose send a message about your enterprise’s own credibility on sustainability. So when it comes to reducing your carbon footprint with an offset purchase, it pays to do the research before opening your wallet.

Want to learn more about how offsets should be judged? Check out A Consumer’s Guide to Retail Carbon Offset Providers, a report by Clean Air-Cool Planet.

Last Friday morning, three Thinkshifters reported for San Francisco Bay patrol duty at Pier 1½. San Francisco Baykeeper, the recipient of our 1% for the Planet donation, invited us to join them on their patrol boat to show us more about what they do. Eliet Henderson, Baykeeper’s development director, met us with the day’s mission: locating drain pipes and outflows along the San Rafael Canal.

Here’s what we learned:

Storm water runoff is the biggest source of pollution in the bay.  Since outflows are not adequately mapped, so Baykeeper is skirting the bay looking for them  so that when the rainy season comes, they can track where storm water comes into the bay and monitor the pollutants.

Baykeeper does amazing work, and they manage it on a very tight budget.  Much of this is due to dedicated volunteers like the skipper and first mate on our boat. Volunteers like these, along with donations, are what allow Baykeeper to continue its vigilant protection of the bay.

Our patrol trip was a treat—we enjoyed a beautiful day on the bay and spotted some wildlife (ospreys, herons, a sea lion) as well as a few outflow pipes. We also learned a lot about Baykeeper’s day-to-day efforts, and we’re proud to support their work.

To learn more about San Francisco Baykeeper and how you can help, visit baykeeper.org.

As marketers, we’re acutely aware of paper use—we handle all kinds of print projects for clients, and paper appears in nearly every aspect of modern life, in packaging, personal and home products, and so on. I even own a hat made of paper (recycled).

The bad news is, paper use is on the rise globally, and North Americans use more of it per person than anybody else. The good news is, per capita use in North America is on the decline, and we’re seeing more use of recycled content and production methods that don’t use harmful chemicals.

The Environmental Paper Network (EPN) chronicles every aspect of paper production and use in its new report, State of the Paper Industry 2011. The report, aimed at policy makers, the paper and forestry industries, and large paper users, shows why changing the ways we produce and use paper is one of the best opportunities we have to reduce environmental damage.

Much of the progress is due to concerted action by the paper industry itself and watchdog and certification groups, along with demand by users such as designers (who were on board early), the packaging industry (which came later to the party, but recently has started to make a big impact), and big companies’ environmental procurement policies. Pressure on our forests is growing, despite the prevalence of digital media, but more forests are being managed sustainably or even designated off-limits.

The EPN set the baseline for statistics with it’s first report in 2007. Here are a few quick stats from this year’s report:

• Paper accounted for 16% of waste in North American landfills in 2009, down from 26 percent in 2005.
• The United States recycled or reused 63 percent of paper in 2009, compared with 46 percent in 2000.
• The average North American consumed more than 500 pounds of paper per person, per year in 2010; the average European consumed just under 400 pounds a year. World average is 120 pounds per person.
• From 2005 to 2009, the volume of paper in U.S. landfills shrank by 16 million tons to 26 million tons. That’s the equivalent of a line of trash barges almost 400 miles long.
• In 2009, China surpassed North America in overall paper use.
• As of July 2011, there were 791 available papers certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (the FSC provides the only certification that the EPN and environmentalists recognize as legitimate). The EPN designated only 121 papers as environmentally superior in 2010, as evaluated by its Paper Steps project.

The EPN makes a number of recommendations for making more progress, which boil down to: use less paper, and when you must, use recycled paper made with low-impact processes. Fortunately, it’s relatively easy to find papers with 100 percent recycled content; many are just as handsome as their environmentally unfriendly counterparts. Good recycled papers are available through most printers and at big box stores (I’ve found Staples has the best options for everyday office use).