With more and more organisations wanting to offset their carbon emmissions there has been a correspoding proliferation of offset providers. The Australian Government has been warning businesses in this area that they need to be careful about ensuring that their claims are valid. Carbon Offset Watch, a new partnership between the Institute for Sustainable Futures (an academic research institute at the University of Technology, Sydney), the Total Environment Centre (representing environmental interests) and CHOICE (representing consumer interests) provides Australia’s first independent ranking of voluntary carbon offset providers. It gives you information to inform your offset purchase and encourages you to demand quality and transparency in offset retailer services and products.that reduce greenhouse gases from entering the atmosphere in the first place.

Carbon offset claims are coming under increasing scrutiny from the ACCC, which has already investigated a number of dubious claims made by some companies. Possibly the best-known of these is the pending Federal Court action concerning “green” claims used in a marketing campaign for Saab vehicles against GM Holden.

The ACCC has released a paper addressing Carbon offset claims and outlining some key concerns. They specifically look at marketing claims about the environmental benefits of products and services that claim to  include the ability to ‘neutralise’ the ‘carbon footprint’ of a product or service. The paper is available for download here.

Rainforest Rescue does not currently provide Carbon offsets as such but is investigating various options as part of develping it’s Carbon Offset Program. Rainforest Rescue continues to protect and restore rainforests for their biodiversity values while acknowledging that their are carbon storage and reduction benefits to the work that it does.