Erasing your carbon conscience

Each individual is producing a carbon footprint, which is contributing to climate change on this planet. Around 40% of the UK's carbon dioxide emissions are produced through electricity consumption in the home. Carbon offsetting is way for individuals and companies to "pay back" their carbon emission debt.

Businesses and individuals can pay a company to invest in renewable energy schemes - projects that will reduce carbon emissions by an amount equal to those created by activities such as air travel, driving or heating a building.

In the fight against global warming, there is no better weapon than cutting emissions in the first place. However, offsetting is an intermediary measure which is a useful tool and can certainly be used to appease the damage done by unavoidable use of energy.

There are many schemes which advertise offsetting programs, but ones which invest in renewable energy or energy efficient projects, which can prove what they say they are doing are generally more recommended by environmental watch-dogs.

Reforestation (or tree planting) projects, bio-energy or gas capture schemes are common but not as effective as others because they do not invest in the types of infrastructure needed for a low carbon future.

There are number of accreditation bodies whose markers you can look for to ensure that you are supporting a legitimate offsetting scheme. These include:

The Quality Mark, given by DEFRA, which shows that a company has met the Government United Nations standards for being a reliable offset scheme.

And, The Gold Standard, which is a type of certification introduced by environmental groups. It identifies offset projects that meet good sustainability standards, deliver benefits to local communities and are based on energy efficiency or renewable energy.

Improve your carbon footprint today by switching to British Gas, the UK's greenest energy supplier. Get your new worcester boiler or baxi boilers online today.