A carbon offset, or carbon credit, represents one tonne of CO2e that has been reduced, avoided or removed from the atmosphere by a project outside a company's own operations.
A carbon offset, often called a carbon credit, is a tradable certificate representing one metric tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) that has been avoided, reduced or removed from the atmosphere by a project. Companies buy and "retire" credits to compensate for emissions they have not yet eliminated.
A professional services firm reduced its office energy and travel emissions, then bought verified removal credits from a biochar project to cover its remaining footprint, retiring them in a public registry.
No. Leading standards, including those for net zero, require companies to cut their own emissions first.
Retiring a credit permanently removes it from circulation in a registry so it cannot be sold or claimed again.
Some projects have been found to overstate their impact. Poor-quality offsets used in marketing claims can lead to accusations of greenwashing.
Part of SafetyIQ's EHS glossary: plain-English definitions of workplace health and safety terms.
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