motivation

Introduction

In this section we want to explore the benefits that can be derived from taking action on climate.

If you are just getting into all this for the first time, you might anticipate that these benefits might be a bit subtle and woolly, but this couldn’t be further from the truth.

Carbon offsetting has the potential to fundamentally reinvigorate your relationship with the planet and transform your view of the future.

From a commercial perspective, it may well have the capability to help revolutionise the image of your brand and boost profitability by improving customer loyalty and price flexibility.

Let’s take a slightly deeper look at the situation for individuals or an organisations.

The motivations for individuals

The decision for an individual to take action to offset their carbon footprint is almost completely a moral one, but it can deliver rewards that are far from sanctimonious.

We are all increasingly aware of our environmental impact on the planet, both as a species and as individuals. For the majority of people who think about such matters more deeply, there’s a genuine feeling of consumer guilt about the glut of energy and materials that we get sucked into wasting on a daily basis.

A small minority of people are able to disconnect from modern society and live a much simpler and less wasteful life, but for most of us, this disentanglement is not practically possible. Living within the system, being conscientious about our expenditure, consumption and recycling is not enough to sufficiently reduce our carbon footprint.

A primary tool in bridging this gap is to purchase carbon offsets. By all means continue to live modestly if you can, but at the same time offset your carbon footprint by getting us to plant tropical trees.

You can offset your whole lifestyle for the whole of the rest of your life very easily and for a surprisingly low cost. Or you can choose to offset specific purchases which concern you, like flights or cars.

To put some illustrative numbers on that.

At the lower end, we can offset the whole lifestyle for a very modest person by planting around 50 of our super-efficient tropical trees, a small copse. At the upper end, for a super-lavish lifestyle, that number can escalate to 1500 trees, a small woodland. The cost is a single payment in the range USD 240-6000, to offset your whole lifestyle for your whole life. The average cost a person living in a developed country is around USD 1000.

For flights and associated travel extras, to offset a modest 1-2 week short-haul trip, we need to plant just 3 trees, whilst for a lavish 3-4 week long-haul trip the total is 44 trees. The cost range is USD 12-170, but this enables you to make a trip of this type every year for the rest of your life.

You will notice that we keep citing these numbers as being ‘for the rest of your life’. That’s because our trees keep on growing and actually sequestering ever more carbon from the atmosphere each year throughout their lifespans, which are generally far longer than ours.

Opting to offset carbon is usually a very personal decision. Some people may advertise it to friends, some may deploy an appropriate bumper sticker, but most people don’t broadcast the fact. Taking action on climate is something most people do because it’s the right thing to do from a moral point of view.

But there’s a real bonus.

Many of our clients report that, once they have taken the step to offset their lifestyles, they have felt like a burden has been lifted from them. Most of us carry our consumer guilt relatively lightly and it’s only when this weight has been lifted from our shoulders that we realise how much it had been bearing down on us.

Becoming carbon neutral, becoming sustainable, can really transform your view of the future and be an incredibly uplifting experience.

What we offer individuals

If you are starting to warm to the idea of taking action on carbon, then you should be able to find the offset options for lifestyles, trips and products that you need right here on the website.

When you make a purchase, in return you will get a formal receipt from us, stating how much you have paid, how much carbon you are offsetting and how many tropical trees we have committed to plant on your behalf.

There is also an option on the purchasing page where you can request that we send you a modest carbon goodie bag, which contains a formal certificate, various CarbonPlanet stickers and a handmade gift from our lovely farmers in Africa. Although we are rather reticent to create further carbon emissions by sending out physical products, if the stickers can attract more people to pay for more trees, it’s an overall win.

If you feel that your carbon consumption is not described by our standard carbon packages, then we are able to offer custom carbon assessments at no extra cost. These are also described on the pages for lifestyles, trips and products.

The motivations for organisations

For an organisation, taking action on climate can deliver an even wider range of benefits.

Since most organisations exist to make profits, let’s start there.

Companies in various business sectors have discovered that embracing environmental values can have an incredibly transformative and uplifting effects on their brand image.

You’ve doubtless encountered some of these. A beer company that plants seagrass, a manufacturer that plants a tree for every mattress you purchase, a retailer who offers to recycle your old fridge when you buy a new one.

These companies have discovered that the upsides they experience in terms of increased customer loyalty and price flexibility far outweigh the modest costs of carbon offsetting and other environmentally positive services.

Another great example are travel companies which provide carbon offsetting as part of the packages that they sell. Customers are acutely aware of the emissions burden derived from flights. Alleviating that consumer guilt can be highly beneficial, both commercially and environmentally.

The same can be said of car manufacturers. By including the option for suitable offsetting, they are able to make a premium vehicle as carbon efficient as a modest eco-car. These are powerful sales tools.

Another advantage, one that it often overlooked and understated, is the uplifting effect on staff when a company has environmental policies high on its list of priorities. It can prove particularly inspirational for bright young recruits and tends to improve both staff retention and wage flexibility.

When you consider that, for most companies, the cost of going carbon neutral typically falls in the range 0.1-0.3% of turnover, it’s easy to see how the advantages can dramatically outweigh the costs.

What we offer organisations

Having learned what are the potential upsides of carbon certification, let us now turn our attention to the services that we offer.

The quick overview is that we will take care of everything for you every step of the way, ensuring that the whole process incredibly easy and simple.

1 : Getting started

When you first start thinking about carbon offsetting, we are here to help, answering questions and chatting about the various options. Please don’t feel you need to have done any research beforehand, we are more than happy to walk you through the basics and get you to the point where you can make an initial decision about whether or not this is a path you want to go down.

2 : Strategy

We are more than happy to discuss and advise on your carbon sequestration strategy, whether that means simply deciding which level of certification may best suit your organisation, or consulting at board level about important strategic brand decisions. Even in the latter case, we rarely charge anything for these expert services.

3 : Assessment

Before you can make any decisions, you will need to know the numbers. If you are going for Carbon Neutral certification, then we will need to make an assessment of the carbon footprint for the indirect part of your business. If you are going for Carbon Aware then we will need to assess the carbon footprint of your products. If you are going for Carbon Free, then we need to do both.

This process is usually a lot simpler than it sounds, we have templates for most business sectors and simply need to ask you some basic questions over the course of a phone call. Again, we do not charge for this service.

4 : Quotation

Although this might seem like a rather complicated process, in reality we are often able to get to this quotation stage within a day or so. We have even been know to issue certification same day.

Our quotations are intended to map out your options in the clearest and most transparent way possible, ready for you to make your decisions.

5 : Certification

If you choose to go ahead with certification, then you will receive the following from us …

• A receipt showing your payment commitment and our commitment to plant the requisite number of tropical trees.

• A link to a document outlining how you might like to promote your certification on your paperwork, website and marketing materials. As always, we are also available to offer advice on the phone.

• A link to a web location from where you can download any certification imagery that you may need.

6 : Implementation

If you have chosen Carbon Aware or Carbon Free certification, then we are on hand to offer advice on how to best implement carbon surcharges on your invoices (invisible, visible, compulsory, opt-out, opt-in) and how to order the appropriate carbon offsets from us (which can either be done on a job-by-job basis or retrospectively at the end of an appropriate accounting period).

7 : Renewal

At the end of your certification period (usually one year), we will conduct a quick review to ensure that you are honouring your carbon obligations and issue you with a renewal invoice. It is important to note that we do not charge the same amount as the first year, since the trees we planted then are still sequestering carbon. Instead we charge a much reduced rate in order that we can replace trees lost due to drought, pests and woodcutters.

8 : Review

We are happy to help you review your carbon strategy at any time, whether that means brainstorming new ideas to promote your products or reviewing data and deciding to cut back. The important thing is that your organisation has the best and most appropriate carbon strategy at all times.

9 : Project visits

If you are lucky enough to be able to travel to Africa, then we can arrange for you to visit one of our tree nursery projects, to meet our gardeners and pop into some of our lovely local farmers.

We can also do this for groups, if you would like to put on an incentive trip for staff or treat your customers.

You will find it an utterly enchanting experience.

Excitingly, we have projects close to some of the greatest safari areas on the continent, notably the Ngorongoro and Serengeti region of Tanzania, so most of our visitors tend to do so in combination with a safari. Since CarbonPlanet actually originated from the world of safari, we are even in a great position to help you out with travel arrangements!