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