It’s not always “the others”. All means of transportation and those who use them contribute approximately 20% to the greenhouse gas emissions that are changing the world’s climate. While CO2 emissions have receded in all other areas of the western world, traffic-related emissions continue to climb significantly throughout the world. Business travel plays a significant role in this. “It makes up 17% of the overall amount of traffic,” explains Ludger Bals, an expert from the Verband Deutsches Reisemanagement (German Travel Management Association). For example business flights: Hardly any air traveler considers that at circa eleven kilometers altitude, his or her flight generates up to 2.6 tons of CO2 per 100 kilometers – after all, the heavens are always blue and sunny above the clouds.

This is one explanation why climate protection is especially interesting for companies, and not only for image reasons. But many other people find “carbon offsetting” particularly attractive as well. What is carbon offsetting? Generally, at the time a flight is booked, the probable amount of CO2 that will be generated is calculated, plus an amount of money with which this amount can be neutralized somewhere else. This is made possible by the offers of “compensation partners”. Organizations like Atmosfair (www.atmosfair.de), myclimate (www.myclimate.org), Sustainable Travel International (www.sustainabletravelinternational.org) or Compensate (www.compensate.ch) calculate the exhaust emitted through travel by car, rail or air and organize measures to “compensate” for possible environmental damages. As a rule, the emissions generated are “converted” into financial support for climate protection projects according to the distance traveled and the means of travel used. This enables the use of energy sources in third-world countries to be significantly improved and thus, the emission of CO2 and other greenhouse gases greatly reduced.

Those who take advantage of programs such as these can answer the obligatory question, “How was your flight?” with the (still) unusual answer: “Environmentally neutral!”

It’s easy to say, “I’d like to travel more ecologically, but the travel business doesn’t provide good alternatives.” But what if we instead took care of our own business first… for example, by investing in the so called ‘ActionCarbone’ Program and trying to convince other travel managers by our works – not our words.

ActionCarbone is a non-profit program which proposes to companies, institutions and individuals that they act against climate change by reducing and offsetting their greenhouse gases and thus funding energy efficient, renewable-energy projects developed by NGOs in developing countries. Offsetting is defined as “a financing mechanism by which an individual or entity partially or fully offsets its own emissions by reducing them at the source by purchasing—through a third party—an equivalent amount of carbon credits.

The underlying principle of carbon offsetting is that the amount of greenhouse gas emissions in one place can be ‘offset’ by the reduction or capturing of an equivalent quantity of greenhouse gases elsewhere”(www.actioncarbone.org).

In addition to international standards, the Agency for the Environment and Energy Control (ADEME ) wanted to publish a code of best practices for the voluntary offsetting market in France, i.e. companies that wish to offset emissions or offer this option to their clients, and especially carbon offset providers. Carbon offset providers who signed the code have committed themselves to respecting strict project specifications for the implementation of offsetting projects.

See also www.actioncarbone.org