Maybe you’ve bought a carton of soy milk with a picture of a wind turbine on it. Or you get internet service from a company claims to be carbon neutral. It is marketing designed to bring up warm fuzzy feeling, unless you take a more skeptical view of carbon offsets.
Last week I went to a local environmental group discussion that was sponsored by Renewable Choice, a local carbon offset company. As we sat at a Nepali restaurant drinking beer and munching on *papadums*, two company representatives passed out pro-offset literature and moderated a lively discussion.
Most of the audience members who spoke up challenged the two company reps, grilling them questions that were difficult for them to answer. There was a pretense of politeness, but a palatable undercurrent of skeptical antagonism.
I’ll spare you the coverage of the pretense and principles. Here’s what I was able to “read between the lines” from conversation:
* **[Carbon offsets](http://http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_13/b4027057.htm/ “another inconvenient truth”) are intangible, even symbolic.** When traced back to the source, the offset credits usually encourage climate protection that would have happened regardless of buying or selling of paper certificates.
* **Carbon offsets are a “middle-man” business model, kind of like the charity telemarketing or multi-level marketing (MLM).** An undisclosed cut of the profits goes to support the offset purveyors, and *some* of it is (hopefully) passed on to renewable energy infrastructure.
* **High-carbon corporations like Pepsi and Whole Foods are some of the biggest buyers and fans of carbon offsets.** Rather than take steps to actually reduce their carbon emissions and environmental impact (i.e., by recycling or driving electric cars), they carry on with business as usual and leverage the credits for advertising and PR to “green up” their image.
* **Carbon offsets are sold to individuals and corporations at different rates, with no outside regulation.** Some people question the integrity of the accounting.
* **While most carbon offsets may not do much to reduce carbon or help the environment, they may be an easy first step that gets people thinking about carbon emissions and environmental issues.** Some awareness is better than none. It’s a start.
* **Some dubious companies have sold carbon offsets and gotten called out, blurring the line between green marketing and greenwashing.** The stigma of this could harm more legitimate non-profit environmental action groups and causes.
After an hour of discussion with the environmentalists and carbon offset sellers, I felt like there was an inconvenient truth about carbon offsets. I’m not saying that **all** offsets are inherently questionable, but it feels to me like a symbolic/economic thing doesn’t really get to the root of the problem or leave the Earth any greener and pristiner than before.
I’m on the lookout for energy conservation technologies and products that make a significant, direct difference. And I don’t want to get distracted.
