FAQs

One carbon offset represents one metric tonne of greenhouse gas emissions reduced or removed from the atmosphere. A carbon offset is created by either a) removing one tonne of emissions from the atmosphere by for example planting forests, or b) preventing one tonne of emissions from reaching the atmosphere by for example replacing a fossil-fuel burning power plant with a wind farm.

If the carbon offset isn’t independently verified – you can’t be certain that the activity happened.

Carbon offsetting involves the purchase of an independently verified carbon offset equal to the calculated emissions of an individual or organisation.

Carbon offsetting allows individuals and businesses to invest in environmental projects around the world in order to reduce their carbon footprint.

One carbon offset is equal to one metric tonne of carbon dioxide reductions.

Offsetting plays a critical role across all businesses carbon strategies. Some of the key benefits include:

• Meeting customer, investor and staff expectations to cut carbon pollution.

• Enhanced brand reputation and value.

• Improved brand integrity.

• Increased customer loyalty and sales.

• Meeting other strategic business goals, like Reconciliation Action Plan targets and aligning with the Sustainable Development Goals.

• Establish industry leadership.

• Market and geographic synergies from project co-benefits.

• Delivering co-benefits beyond carbon reductions, including biodiversity, gender equality and Indigenous employment.

• Meet emission-reduction targets while working towards long term sustainability changes.

• Inspire your workforce to engage in carbon reduction activities in house, in turn reducing your costs and supporting your goals.

Your purchase goes to the procurement of fully verified and independently audited carbon offset projects. TEM's operational, due-diligence, risk management and marketing costs are also included in the list price. By purchasing from these projects, you are mobilising capital to support the project's ongoing operations and benefits, alongside of ensuring measurable emissions reductions and avoidance.

Pollution and emissions do not stay within national borders. CO2 in the atmosphere spreads across the globe and is an international problem. Therefore, you can purchase offsets anywhere in the world and contribute to global emissions reduction. In many cases, carbon offset projects are located in developing countries because community and economic co-benefits from the project will have a bigger impact there. However, you may choose to purchase offsets locally due to the co-benefits that may positively impact your own supply chain or market.

Climate change is an international problem that cannot be solved without global support. We need individuals, organizations, and governments around the world to commit to climate action, because just one protected rainforest or carbon zero country cannot solve the problem. This is why supporting projects around the world through carbon offset funding plays a critical role in the solution to climate change.

Before you're able to purchase the carbon offset units in your order, we need to run some checks and balances. Carbon market participants in Australia who provide financial advice, trade, or make and operate and market in certain types of carbon credit units, or derivatives of these units, require an Australian financial services license (AFSL).

Tasman Environmental Markets Australia Pty Ltd (TEM) is authorised to provide financial services to wholesale clients (within the meaning of the Corporations Act 2001). We do not currently provide financial services to retail clients.

Most financial services provided by Tasman Environmental Markets Australia Pty Ltd are also designated services under the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Terrorism Financing Act 2006. Under the provisions of this Act, Tasman Environmental Markets Pty Limited is obliged to verify the identity of its clients.

TEM is also a signatory to the Australian Carbon Industry Code of Conduct (the Code). The code promotes best practice carbon market integrity, transparency, and accountability for Australian consumers. As a signatory to the Code, TEM has agreed to conduct business in line with the Code requirements.

• Send you content and copy relating to the projects you're supporting. Expect this within 1x business day of your purchase!

• Add your company to our customer page. This will show: the projects you have supported and the volume of offsets per project. We won’t share any financial info.

• Retire the offsets you have purchased. If you choose a company-specific retirement certificate, we'll retire your offsets in your name within a few days of your purchase and send you the certificate then. If you are happy with bulk retirement, we will retire them in bulk (in TEM’s name rather than your company’s name) in the month following your purchase, along with other TEM+ customers. Note: you will need individual retirement for Climate Active and other certification purposes.

• The evidence of retirement will include: the listing on each registry that relates to the offsets you have purchased, a TEM-branded retirement certificate, and a link to the customer page (point 2 above).

• Keep you updated on new projects as they’re added to TEM+. Of course – you can choose to opt out of those emails!

TEM only supports carbon offset projects that are verified at the highest international standards. Of course, it is critical to ensure that the emission reductions generated by these projects are actually occurring. This is the work of accreditors like the VCS Program and the Gold Standard to ensure that once projects have been certified against rigorous criteria, project developers can then be issued tradable carbon offsets. All the carbon offset projects we support have undergone a rigorous due diligence process to guarantee quality, integrity and measurable carbon abatement impact. Read more on our Integrity page.

The price of an offset depends on a range of factors, including the location, size, verification standard and value of the non-carbon benefits (e.g. ecosystem health and employment). The vintage of the offset can sometimes influence the price, but is part of a much larger picture.

At TEM, we believe transparency is the key to both impact and accountability.

TEM engages with carbon standards that are endorsed by the International Carbon Reduction & Offset Alliance (ICROA) and the Australian Government’s Climate Active program. These include:

• Verified Carbon Standard / Verra

• Gold Standard

• Clean Development Mechanism

• Australian Emissions Reduction Fund / Australian Carbon Credit Unit standards

• American Carbon Reserve

But TEM goes further than this. Through TEM’s due diligence process, we assess key aspects of carbon projects to mitigate any potential risks such as:

• Whether the project represents emissions abatement that is additional to what would have otherwise occurred in a ‘business-as-usual’ scenario.

• Whether the project methodology has been applied at best practice.

• Any issues identified in the project’s monitoring, verification, and validation reports.

• Any association of the project to bribery, corruption, environmental damage, or landholder mistreatment.

• The reputation of the project developer.

• Local community perception the projects; and

• The permanence and longevity of the project.

You may find a difference between the cost of projects listed on this site and the average prices listed on the wholesale carbon market/s. That’s because this platform offers projects where we have gone the extra mile to ensure their integrity and deliver you the end-to-end service that others won’t. Our pricing is fully inclusive of the end-to-end services to ensure integrity, including:

• The cost to source, deliver and/or procure projects – Sourcing, purchasing and holding carbon units.

• TEM’s proprietary due diligence and risk management for each project – Put simply, we do the work to limit the chance that you will support a project that doesn’t deliver measurable and long-term carbon abatement.

• Our retirement process – Following each purchase, every carbon offset purchased on TEM+ can be transparently traced to a retired carbon unit listed on an independent registry.