What is Carbon Offsetting?

Extract from Wikipedia

Carbon offsetting is the act of mitigating ("offsetting") greenhouse gas emissions. A well-known example is the planting of trees to compensate for the greenhouse gas emissions from personal air travel.

Carbon offsets generally refer to voluntary acts by individuals or companies that are commonly arranged by commercial or not-for-profit carbon-offset providers.

A wide variety of offset methods are in use - while tree planting has initially been a mainstay of carbon offsetting, renewable energy and energy conservation offsets have now become increasingly popular, and purchase and withdrawal of emissions trading credits is also seen.

Carbon offsetting as part of a "carbon neutral" lifestyle has gained some appeal and momentum mainly among consumers in western countries who have become aware and concerned about the potentially negative effects of energy-demanding lifestyles and economies on the environment. The Kyoto Protocol has sanctioned official offsets for governments and private companies to earn carbon credits which can be traded on a marketplace. This has contributed to the increasing popularity of voluntary offsets among private individuals and also companies. Offsets may be cheaper or more convenient alternatives to reducing one's own fossil-fuel consumption.

How We Can Help

Our Simple Philosophy

Suprisingly, almost half (46%) of a typical person's carbon footprint is the result of the energy used to create, transport or provide the goods and services we buy and use everyday. (Ref: The Carbon Trust, 2006)

OUR PLEDGE:

TheOffsetShop.co.uk pledge to purchase 1kg of Carbon Offset for every £2 spent as a direct result of visiting any store from our website.

How We Do This

Commission Based Results

TheOffsetShop.co.uk have made agreements with all the stores shown on our website for a small commission to be paid to us as a result of any purchases made by our visitors to their websites. In most cases the commissions we receive will cover the cost of the Carbon Offset we have pledged. Where the commission is not sufficient, the excess from other purchases is used to make-up the difference. So, for example, because of our pledge, a purchase costing £100 with any of these stores will generate 50kg of CO2 offset!

Each link to a store automatically contains a unique reference code which, should a purchase be made, identifies the visitor as having arrived at the store from our website. You do not have to do anything! When a sale is completed TheOffsetShop.co.uk are credited with the agreed commission.

Remember: You can be completely confident in shopping through The Offset Shop as your purchases are made directly with all of the highly trusted stores we show.