About The Website
- The Carbon Offset Guide is intended to be a resource for businesses, government agencies, NGOs and individuals seeking information about offsets.
- The aim of this website is to provide an independent directory of Australian carbon offset providers. It is hoped this will improve the understanding of the offset market by Australian businesses, as well as the broader community, and facilitate better environmental and economic outcomes.
- The information presented here was supplied to the Carbon Offset Guide in May 2012. New developments in the market since then will be reflected in the next release of the website.
- For the purpose of this website, retailing carbon offsets refers to the sale of carbon offsets to final end-users to reduce their carbon footprint. This definition may be amended over time.
- The information presented in the Carbon Offset Guide was primarily informed by an online survey sent to providers in April 2012. While effort has been made to check the accuracy of this information, the creators of this website do not accept responsibility for evaluating the accuracy, completeness or authenticity of any content. Please see our disclaimer.
- We hope to make the website as useful as possible. Feedback is welcome on any aspect of the Carbon Offset Guide. Provide comments online.
- The Guide includes a carbon offsets glossary to help readers learn about terms they encounter. These are linked throughout the website, but you can view the full glossary here.
About The Project Team
EPA Victoria was a founding partner of the Carbon Offset Guide, and funded the development of the site until June 2012. Low Carbon Australia Limited and the University of Queensland formed a partnership in mid-2011 to update the Carbon Offset Guide at 6 monthly intervals until June 2012 using the funding from the EPA Victoria.
About Carbon Offsets
- Purchasing carbon offsets can be a complicated process. We have developed an offset introduction page and drafted a carbon offset transaction model to help people understand both what carbon offsets are and how to purchase the right ones. If you have any comments on this model, please provide comments here.
- In addition to these two resources, please refer to a set of tips for purchasing offsets; to help you get started with understanding carbon offsets. You can also use our carbon offsets website resources.
About Greenhouse Gas Management
- Carbon offsets are only one aspect of an organisation's or individual's broader greenhouse gas management strategy. An effective strategy identifies the sources of direct and indirect GHG emissions from a business's operations, its products and services and then quantifies these. Actions should then be implemented to reduce the emissions as much as is reasonably practicable. The final step is retiring offsets for those emissions that cannot be reduced further. This approach can optimise financial and environmental outcomes while ensuring that long term meaningful emission reduction measures are implemented.
- Carbon management principles can serve as a useful framework for businesses in developing their own carbon management strategies . The Principles were initially developed by EPA Victoria to guide its own decision-making process in becoming carbon neutral.
- The principles are, in order: Measure, Set objectives, Avoid, Reduce, Switch, Sequester, Assess and Offset.
- The principles reflect a continuous improvement model, given the ongoing nature of carbon management and the opportunity to iterate management strategies to optimise environmental and financial outcomes. Find out more about the carbon management principles.