A Few Reasons To Offset With Evolution Sage.

Choosing a Carbon Offset Program

At Evolution Sage, we believe in making an informed choice. We researched the leading greenhouse gas reduction programs available in the marketplace, and incorporated their best practices into the Sage model. So that consumers, non-profits, businesses and other organizations can more easily compare and contrast other offset programs with our own, we have linked to an independent comparison sheet that can be downloaded here.

Factors to Consider

Many carbon offsets and renewable energy credits are of quality while others are not. As a general rule of thumb, you get what you pay for, so there are some important factors to consider and questions to ask when choosing the most appropriate program:

Cost Efficiency. Questions to consider: How much does the company charge to offset a ton of carbon dioxide? Is it a metric or short ton of greenhouse gases? Where are the offset projects located? Is the credit certified?

Why the difference in cost? Third-party certification drives up the costs but helps to protect your investment. Renewable energy projects like solar and wind farms oftern cost more per each kWh they produce because the up-front investment in panels and wind turbines is high. Location of a project can impact cost because of materials availability and labor costs.

Credibility. Questions to consider: Are the company's projects inspected, verified and or certified by independent third parties? Does this process addresses issues related to accounting, accountability, and true environmental benefits?

International offset projects should meet Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) criteria under the Kyoto Protocol. Currently, the most respected certifiers include Green-e (www.green-e.org) for USA-based renewable energy certificates or carbon offsets and the CDM Gold Standard (www.cdmgoldstandard.org) for international offset projects.

The equations used in an organization's carbon calculators should be based on international standards like those offered by the World Resources Institute.

Transparency. Questions to consider: Is the percentage of funds that are allocated to projects divulged publicly? Do they avoid double counting? Are offsets or emissions reductions delivered upon delivery, within a short time frame, or in the future?

Offsets should avoid double counting. In other words, once you've invested in an offset, it should be retired or taken permanently out of the market. Offsets should also support environmental "additionality." Additionality refers to offset projects that achieve reductions that are "additional to those that otherwise would occur". In other words, offset projects should support the development of new renewable energy and energy efficiency projects, that would not exist otherwise.

The amount of revenue invested in each offset project should be divulged. Typically, non-profit offset providers allocate an average of 80 percent of gross revenues in the project portfolios they support, although some non-profits claim that overhead is part of their "mission." Some for-profit offset providers allocate as little as 20 percent of gross revenues to their project portfolios. Check for disclosure.

Ideally, offset projects should be under construction or in operation already. However, some projects may be so socially beneficial or complex in their partnerships that a lead time is necessary. You should judge the value of the organization's project portfolio using your own sense of importance and relevance to you.

Philanthropic and Humanitarian Benefits. Questions to consider: Are projects based in your local community or in a distant country that may have different verification standards? Do they support renewable energy or energy efficiency, which actually prevent greenhouse gas emissions, or simply reforestation projects that attempt to re-absorb already released carbon dioxide? What about the types of groups that benefit from the projects? Are they non-profits or farms, businesses or governments? Do they provide local communities with opportunities for energy independence? Do they address environmental justice concerns?

Quality offset projects:

Diversify our power supply;
Reduce dependency on imported fuels;
Help local communities reduce air and water pollution;
Support the development of resources and technology that does not pollute;
Maintain a competitive renewable energy industry; and
Increase demand for energy efficient products

Business/Organizational Support. Questions to consider: What type of support does the company provide its business clients? Does the program provide custom greenhouse gas or carbon calculators, consumer-oriented educational materials, employee training, and/or marketing and public relations support?

Offset providers should work directly with reservations, IT and or marketing departments, providing:

Guidance on how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) through first best solutions.
Carbon footprint assessments using guidelines for calculating the GHG emissions and the benefits of offset projects.
Information and materials suitable for addressing your marketing, communication and training needs
Marketing support through brand promotion, press releases, etc.

Evolution Sage Strives To Meet The Above Industry Best Practices

Transparency.

Quality and transparency in the carbon retail offset market have not kept pace with the fast growth of the carbon market sector. Reliable information provided by retail providers has not been adequate. At Evolution Sage, we believe that transparency and verification are the building blocks of a credible long-term carbon market. It is our belief that all carbon retail organizations should prove to their customers that the offsets they are selling are actually leading to the production of renewable energy to reduce emissions from the burning of fossil fuels.

To do this, we provide the following information throughout Evolution Sage's website:

A comprehensive description of what we are selling and how our process works;
A list of specific projects generating the offsets we sell;
What makes our offset projects unique and able to generate quality offsets;
How our projects lead to "additional" offsets by passing a credible "additionality test".

Verification.

Evolution Sage is developing cutting-edge monitoring protocols for offset projects. We are in negotiation with Green-E to provide third party verification of our offsets to assure customers that they are receiving premium quality offsets.

Tracking.

Evolution Sage is building a software tracking system from the ground up that will track every single carbon credit from cradle to grave. Each carbon offset project is assigned a unique code, and each credit a unique serial number. That credit serial number is tracked from it's creation, to purchase by the customer, to retirement on-line, for our third-party verifiers and customers to see in real time. This guarantees that an offset is claimed and sold only once, and is unique to Evolution Sage.