Beyond Carbon: Do Good, Not Harm
This series has explored how time, money, and information play critical roles in the quality of carbon credits OffsetC offers.
However, those attributes are not the whole picture. In addition to carbon reductions, every project affects its local community and environment – usually beneficially. A project’s carbon reductions benefit the global environment that we all share. Local co-benefits impact the people actually performing the work of the project and the communities hosting it. Any carbon project must respect and protect the health, values, origins, and practices of these local communities.
Greater Good: Co-benefits
Co-benefits describe positive effects that a project may have on local communities and the surrounding environment beyond its carbon reductions. These co-benefits take many forms and are often specific to the project type and local context in which the project is operating. They include:
Improved local air quality
Preservation of biodiversity
Restoration of habitat
Reduction of health hazards from pollutants
New jobs associated with the project
Creation of green spaces
Environmental education
Production of clean energy
Many of these co-benefits align with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that support “peace and prosperity for people and planet”. All projects offered by OffsetC have three or more co-benefits, in most cases including multiple UN SDGs.
For example, OffsetC offers credits from the Lebanon Landfill Gas to Electricity project in Lebanon, PA, USA. The project issues carbon credits based on the capture and destruction of methane—an extremely potent greenhouse gas—that results from organic decomposition in landfills. Distinct from these methane reductions, the project also:
Produces electricity and exports it to the grid
Creates approximately five well-paid local jobs
Improves local air quality
Houses an on-site education center, where students and other groups can learn about the technology and benefits of methane capture
Those co-benefits, along with the project’s primary activity, support three UN SDGs: good health and well-being, affordable and clean energy, as well as climate action.
While co-benefits demonstrate a carbon project’s potential to do additional good, OffsetC also keeps vigilant to ensure that carbon projects do no harm. Project qualities that help prevent harm include:
Clear communication and agreements between local communities and project developers
Continued monitoring and reporting of project efficacy and outcomes
Applying the best current scientific and engineering principles during project implementation and verification
All OffsetC projects have been examined using the above principles to ensure there are no inadvertent harmful effects.
Keep Learning with OffsetC
Future posts will focus on other aspects of carbon credits and the carbon market, like the role of Rating agencies and additional criteria to consider when purchasing credits. Can’t get enough of these deep dives? Get the OffsetC app to get these blog posts delivered right to your phone as soon as they’re live.
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Our Understanding Carbon Offsets Series:
Part 4: Trust, but Verify
Part 5: Beyond Carbon: Do Good, Not Harm
