What’s the scoop with Carbon for Good? Well, it all started when a group of us decided to offset our individual carbon footprints, and were appalled with what we found: very little choice, very boring projects (cow methane sequestration, anyone?), and - to our minds - very little impact. So we embarked on a journey to offset carbon the right way: by giving people choice, a truly interesting pool of offset projects to choose from, and - here’s the important part - the chance to have much greater impact than ever before.
So how are we going about doing it?
Well, it turns out that finding interesting projects is a cinch: there is a wealth of cool people doing very cool things, so supply isn’t the problem. What we did find, however, is that those who have already thought about selling offsets are already doing so, mostly because they can afford to get verified - not exactly the edge we were looking for!
However, since in our day jobs we work primarily with social entrepreneurs - people doing very cool things to benefit humanity and the environment - we finally put 2 and 2 together: how about using carbon offsets to help fund these social entrepreneurs, simultaneously helping both the entrepreneurs and their targeted beneficiaries? Now that’s impact.
Take it one step further, and target an equally deserving group (though with very different needs) : the 4 billion people at the bottom of the pyramid, or BOP. Why not use carbon offsets as a mechanism for lifting people out of poverty?
So there you have our model:
- Provide a means for social entrepreneurs engaged in positive social and environmental actions with a carbon emission-reducing component to use the revenue from offsets as a funding stream, and…
- Provide incentive to those at the bottom of the pyramid to engage in carbon emission-reducing behaviors, and thus lift themselves out of poverty.
Reward carbon emission-reducing behavior, and everybody wins.
That’s the story behind Carbon for Good, and the resulting offsets - which we call “Charismatic Carbon”. There is more to Charismatic Carbon than meets the eye, though: how to rate it? how to measure ‘impact’? how to compare Charismatic Carbon to other, more traditional offsets? Is Charismatic Carbon even an offset? Does it matter?
Don’t worry, the conversation is only just beginning.