Hi to everyone
Me and a good friend recently started working on a new idea regarding carbon offsets we are calling community offsets. We are looking for advice, feedback, help and anything else you care to offer, including constructive criticism.
Thanks
Aaron Schreiber -Stainthorp
* Community Offsets: Micro-finance Carbon Offsets
* Community Offsets' mission is to connect people through carbon offsets for the sake of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Community Offsets' would be based Kiva's microfinance model of connecting people wishing to purchase carbon offsets with people needing help financing carbon reduction projects.
* Individuals interested in buying carbon offsets
* will be able to calculate their carbon footprint, determine if they would like to purchase carbon offsets and how many they would need to reach their emissions reduction goal (i.e. average emissions of average American, emissions of average world citizen, carbon neutral). Then they could search for a micro-carbon offset project (COP) they would like to support. All of the COPs will be searchable based on project type, geographical location, estimated carbon reduction, the financial efficiency (carbon offset versus cost of the project), and financial need of the project participants. Carbon offset "buyers" will choose what projects they wish to support, and whether they wish to fund part or all of a micro-carbon offset project.
* For people looking to finance personal carbon reduction projects
* (i.e. carbon offset "sellers"), they will be able to post a personal profile, describe their project description, the project timeline, the estimated carbon reduction associated with the project (a web-site calculator along with website administrators will assist with this), their personal motivation for undertaking this project and a sustainable behavior pledge they agree to undertake as a condition of the financing. This is the basic model that I would like to model the community offsets concept on. I know that this basic outline is very open, but I would like to try and open up the idea for feedback to try to improve upon the idea and also ask the world community for help taking this project and turning it into a reality.
*Questions:*
*Financial Structure*
-Should people receiving the money be required to repay part of it over time in an effort to build up the capital funds of community offsets, or should no portion of that money be required to be repaid?
-Should funding cover the whole cost of a project or only the cost difference between the standard option and the environmental conscious option (i.e. Paying for the difference between a gas boiler and a geothermal heating system, or paying for the whole geothermal heating system)? Or should that question be left open for the funder (the individual or group buying carbon offsets to decide)?
*Certification *
-How can we accurately measure and assess people's current carbon footprints? Various carbon calculators exist, which ones would be the most accurate and useful for this potential project?
-Similarly do any calculators exist for measuring carbon reduction for small scale (i.e. home efficiency improvement) projects? What would be necessary to create an accurate carbon reduction calculator?
-How can we ensure that the projects posted are actually completed and working as planned? Would this require on-site certification by a third party or community offsets associated partner? Could non-profits, banks or energy auditors play a role in administering the financing and ensuring that the project was completed?
*Financial and Social Equity*
-Given that people of lower income will be disproportionately affected by rising energy prices, and face greater challenges in reducing their carbon footprint. How can this project help assist those most in need of help financially?
*Organizational Structure*
-Should this organization be established as a non-profit (which may require a year to get proper status), try and establish a partnership with an existing non-profit, or not pursue non-profit status?
-What other considerations need to be taken now when staking out the direction of this project? "Kiva provides a data-rich, transparent lending platform. We are constantly working to make the system more transparent to show how money flows throughout the entire cycle, and what effect it has on the people and institutions lending it, borrowing it, and managing it along the way. To do this, we are using the power of the Internet to facilitate one-to-one connections that were previously prohibitively expensive. Kiva creates a similar interpersonal connection at much lower costs due to the instant, inexpensive nature of Internet delivery. The individuals featured on our website are real people who need a loan and are waiting for socially-minded individuals like you to lend them money." Kiva's model
Community Offsets
Sign in or Sign up to comment
Hi Aaron
I think that the program you describe, a small community model, is one of the best possible ways of doing offsets, but I question the offset concept. We should simply reduce, reduce, reduce. However, I realize that the transition can be difficult, so steps along the way can be helpful. A couple of suggestions:
* It's not easy to measure our individual carbon emissions directly, but we can measure behaviors (which is pretty much what carbon calculators do) - this provides a rough estimate. So I would suggest using a detailed behavior inventory as the reduction criteria (there must be some out there already, or create one suitable to your community). It can get pretty detailed, e.g., how many bananas (or other long-distance foods) do you eat a week, how many times you use your laundry dryer (electric or gas), air miles, etc.
* Every offset "seller" can sell only half of her/his offsets - this enforces the "reduce" part of the equation.
* The bottom line in all of this, however, is the cultural change: people need to have a real sense of urgency that the reductions must happen as quickly as possible. The hard and most important part is the switch to the hurricane-at-the-doorstep mentality *before* the hurricane is at the doorstep. The offset part has to be much more than the satisfying feeling that "I've been a good green citizen" - and now we can continue on our merry, exponential and lethal consuming ways.
Good luck, keep us posted!
Adam
I think this could be a nifty idea. One thing that could be sticky is that folks who are concerned about carbon emissions might choose to invest in their own carbon reduction (install solar panels on their house, buy a hybrid etc) rather than continue to emit carbon but pay to have someone else become more "green." The concept might appeal to folks who are as carbon emission limited as they can be, but still want to do more. So they would be willing to pay for others to reduce emissions. A matching service could be useful to them. Unless you really want to get entangled into some kind of market driven profit and loss mind-set, I don't think you need to be excessively concerned with the accuracy of the carbon footprint estimators. You need to attract buyers (could they be seen as donors?), and I would think that making it easy to buy/donate would pull in more participants. Thus for buyers I would find an estimator that is easy to use so they could rather quickly find a rough approximation of their footprint. (if that is the sole basis for putting in funds.) I am leaning toward suggesting using a more accurate estimator for those doing the reduction work (sellers), so buyers could better gauge the value of what they propose doing. It sounds like you will directly match sellers/buyers. Maybe having some mediator assess the "true expected return" of a proposed project might be a good way to assure buyers their money is going to the best use. This "unbiased estimate of benefit" could be a good addition to the plan. Do you see any problem with sellers who might receive the cash and renege on their pledge, and use the money to buy a flat screen TV instead? How would you know if they honored their pledge? How would the labor needed to set up the matching data base, and whatever fees are needed for maintaining the servers/website etc be paid for? Or do you envision an all volunteer/donated materials sort of operation? Your reference to low income folks and energy costs reminds me that the US has a Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP). I know at one time these funds paid for upgrading home insulation, and other ways to reduce energy costs. LIHEAP is administered locally through community action programs (or similar social service agencies) One of those might be a logical partner/sponsor for your project.