What Is Carbon Offsetting & How Do I Do It?
Carbon footprint. Carbon offsetting. Carbon dioxide. Carbon. Carbon. Carbon. The element carbon must have a really good publicist because it’s mentioned all over social media, constantly plagues the mouths of news reporters, and pops up in most articles surrounding humanity and our climate crisis. Companies proudly proclaim they’re ‘carbon neutral’, individuals focus on minimising their ‘carbon footprint’ and governments have all sorts of ‘carbon targets’.
Yet, most people wouldn’t be able to tell you what carbon is and exactly why we’re all trying so desperately to stop it.
I was one of the first people to sign up to the subscription service GoodyGood and in making my decision to subscribe, I learnt a lot about carbon. This blog post will explain what the heck carbon is, why us humans are trying to ‘offset’ it and why I chose GoodyGood as a way to help offset my personal carbon footprint.
What is carbon?
Carbon is the fourth most abundant element in the universe. It is EVERYWHERE. You are carbon. The device you’re reading this on is carbon. Your lunch today was carbon. Carbon is found in all living lifeforms, all organic compounds and some inorganic too. As well as being an element, carbon is in a cycle. It’s constantly in motion, changing form (from air to land) in a never ending loop.
What is a carbon offset?
Carbon is not inherently bad. We are not trying to reduce carbon; we are trying to reduce the amount of carbon in our atmosphere by putting it back into ‘storage’. Because carbon is a great source of energy, we (humans) love to extract it from the earth and use it to assist our lives. But we have extracted so much of it in such a short amount of time that there is too much carbon dioxide gas and not enough of it stored in land/physical form.
You may have heard of the ‘greenhouse gas effect’. Simply put, this is the heating of the earth’s surface when gasses from the atmosphere trap heat from the sun that would otherwise end up in space. Carbon dioxide is not the only gas we need to offset and reduce, but it is one of the main greenhouse gasses that contributes to this life threatening phenomenon.
“A carbon offset is when you pay for someone else to remove or reduce one metric tonne of carbon dioxide-equivalent greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.” - GoodyGood.
Carbon emissions are involved in nearly everything we do, so while a person can aim to reduce their carbon emissions, they can never be completely avoided. Carbon offsetting involves contributing money to a project that stores carbon back in land form, to offset the emissions you have produced into the atmosphere. For example, if you took a short domestic flight, the plane emits carbon dioxide as it burns fuel to run, contributing to the growing amount of carbon dioxide we cannot afford to add to our atmosphere. If you calculated the amount of carbon dioxide the plane emitted, and matched this with the amount of carbon that a tree stores, you could offset your trip by planting trees - or paying someone to do so.
Before I launch into why I pay GoodyGood $9 a week to offset my carbon footprint, it’s important to acknowledge a few things:
Offsetting our way out of a climate crisis is not the answer. Offsetting must be done in partnership with a change of habits, future thinking, and reducing your emissions.
Offsetting is complex, so is our climate crisis.
It’s true that large corporations have a massive carbon footprint that makes offsetting your individual impact seem pointless - plus they often try to blame individuals instead of taking responsibility! But I believe individuals, businesses, and the government all need to act responsibly in any way they can. We need all three groups of people to do their best. Using the statement ‘but my little footprint doesn’t make a difference’ is redundant in my opinion.
What is GoodyGood?
I discovered GoodyGood in its infancy. It didn’t even exist as ‘GoodyGood’! As a sustainable business consultant, I was asked to input into the creation of GoodyGood and give feedback on their model and brand design. I gave my two cents over the period of a few years and was stoked to be one of the very first subscribers when they launched in March 2022. I have always been wary of carbon offsetting programmes. Some of them can be complete time and money wasters. But GoodyGood took their time in coming up with a robust and trusted carbon offsetting subscription service and I am honestly impressed with what they do.
Why I love GoodyGood
They aren’t boring. Their branding is fun and playful. This type of joyfilled, bold messaging is how I communicate my sustainable messaging too - naturally, I am drawn to it.
GoodyGood make it clear that offsetting is just one way to address our climate crisis and play a positive part in doing something about it. They provide education and information above and beyond offsetting your carbon footprint.
GoodyGood publish their credit retirement reports for everyone to see - they are incredibly transparent.
All of their projects either meet strict carbon certification criteria and they're either on a widely recognised voluntary carbon registry or one that's run by a government agency like the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
GoodyGood has a small range of projects, allowing me to be more aware of what my money is contributing to.
The projects my money goes towards are both local and global. Personally, I have a passion for supporting both my local and global community.
GoodyGood has three tiers for people to choose from according to their budget and intentions.
GoodyGood do not only remove carbon from the atmosphere but also fund projects that prevent it from being produced in the first place.
The dashboard is colourful, easy to read, and inspirational for my everyday sustainable habits (you can view my profile here).
GoodyGood exist to combat some of the doom and gloom that hangs around climate change issues and leaves people feeling disempowered. As a GoodyGood customer, even though I know I am not ‘saving the world’, I feel less helpless and more in control of my impact. Sure, I try everyday to ensure my actions respect people and the planet, but sometimes it’s impossible for me to live completely to my values, so knowing I am also supporting projects through GoodyGood, helps me feel less paralysed by the facts of our climate crisis and my inevitable contribution to it.
At the start of the year, my husband and I made a goal to work out strategic financial giving. We’ve always had the classic sponsor child monthly payment, but we wanted to broaden our impact and give as much money as possible to support projects that aligned with our values.
Signing up with GoodyGood and properly investigating if they are the best place to spend our money was my subtask in this goal - and GoodyGood passed with flying colours.
If you’re keen to sign up, GoodyGood (Mike and his team) have offered you $10 off your purchase (one use per customer) and you get a groovy Ethically Kate sticker on your dashboard!
Sign up here and make sure you use the code LETSGETETHICAL.
*I only work with brands I love, use, and can wholeheartedly back. This is a sponsored blog but 100% my own words, photos, and opinion. I pay my weekly subscription to GoodyGood from my own pocket.