What Is Carbon Insetting?

Carbon offsets have become an ubiquitous part of society. Everyone from large corporations looking to lower their carbon output to eco-conscious individuals trying to reduce their carbon footprint are purchasing offsets. These are usually in the form of carbon credits, and they are a great way to reduce emissions by capturing or avoiding emissions elsewhere in order to “offset” the desired amount.

For individuals that do their best to reduce their carbon-emitting habits, offsets are probably the best way to reduce the excess carbon that cannot be avoided in everyday modern life. For businesses, on the other hand, there is a sustainable supply chain management strategy that can reduce emissions without relying on others to make up your carbon overshoot.

This is called carbon insetting.

Unlike carbon offsets, where companies pay for projects to capture CO2 somewhere else, carbon insets are when companies invest in sustainable practices inside their own supply or value chains to reduce emissions from within.  This way, emissions are avoided, captured, or at least reduced either upstream or downstream from the company’s main products or services.

Carbon insets are advantageous for several reasons: they sequester carbon, promote climate resilience, protect biodiversity, and restore ecosystems, usually in the form of afforestation (planting new forests), reforestation (restoring previously forested areas, or forest preservation. This is great for Scope 3 emissions – indirect emissions from employees and supply chain activities – which are notoriously difficult to track and offset. Companies also gain the knowledge that their carbon avoidance and sequestration will be reliable, as they directly participate in the sustainable practices that deliver insets for their business.

Carbon inset projects provide a much more holistic approach than offsets because they take into account more than just carbon sequestration or avoidance elsewhere – they support entire ecosystems, as well as the communities involved in creating the insetting projects. Some carbon offset projects also do this, but, unlike with insetting, it is not the norm.

Really the only potential issue with carbon insets is that there is no required certification or guidelines for properly measuring the carbon reduction benefits. That’s where TerGo comes in.

TerGo is spearheading the ability for companies to implement insetting projects all over the world.

Contact us to get your insetting set up and verified and certified with TerGo!

It really does pay to go green.