Brighter Planet

Carbon offset policy

Introduction

Despite the rapid growth of the U.S. carbon offset market, its voluntary nature has produced offsets of varying quality, from the excellent to the questionable. The resulting uncertainty about carbon offsets — driven by the press and embodied in the consumer — has raised doubts about the viability of this promising carbon-reduction mechanism.

Brighter Planet will counteract this uncertainty with transparency. By building a set of offset standards endorsed by its authoritative environmental advisory board, Brighter Planet will give its members confidence that they’re making a real, permanent difference. Following this full-disclosure ethic, Brighter Planet will allow cardholders to stay informed on the renewable-energy projects they’re helping build.

Summary

Offsets purchased by Brighter Planet satisfy the following requirements (“PANTS”):

• Permanence
• Additionality
• New construction
• Transparency
• Social value added

Each of these requirements are treated in depth below.

Permanence

Offsets must be permanent so that carbon reductions are not invalidated by some unforeseen problem.

Source-side improvements such as wind farms, solar installations, and farm methane projects are built to provide carbon-free electricity for decades.

On the other hand, offsets generated through sink-side improvements (such as tree planting) are theoretically attractive yet problematic in execution. The academic literature remains undecided on an appropriate measurement and monitoring strategy, so precise quantification of environmental benefit remains elusive. This is further complicated by an inability to predict natural disasters (such as forest fires) and prevent other disruptive events (timber harvesting, for example) that could compromise the environmental benefit represented by the offsets.

By investing in source-side renewable energy projects, Brighter Planet will ensure that the environmental benefits we purchase will be as permanent as current technology allows.

Additionality

The most important criterion is that projects are additional—that is, they would not have been built were it not for the prospect of receiving additional proceeds from the sale of offsets.

“Business as usual” improvements, on the other hand, are non-additional and their corresponding pollution reduction cannot be sold as a bona fide offset. Brighter Planet will purchase offsets only from additional projects.

New construction

Newly constructed projects result in measurable environmental benefit that can be directly attributed to customers.

Some existing renewable energy projects were constructed without the pre-sale of their lifetimes’ worth of carbon offsets. These projects are able to sell so-called “current year” offsets year by year that represent dirty energy displacement at the time of generation and sale. As a corollary to the additionality requirement, Brighter Planet will prioritize offsets from new project construction over offsets from existing projects.

Although these “current year” projects do help to stimulate the renewable energy movement, Brighter Planet focuses its investment in projects that would not be built without its offset purchase commitment. This will result in measurable additional environmental benefit that can be directly attributed to Brighter Planet customers.

Transparency

In the absence of trusted standards, transparency is the only guarantee of performance.

Because a widely trusted “Good Housekeeping seal” for carbon offsets has yet to emerge, Brighter Planet will fill that role for its members. In order to ensure integrity, Brighter Planet purchases offsets only from suppliers that—like itself—subject themselves to annual auditing.

Social value added

Investments with social value added improve well-being in local economies.

The evolution toward a new renewable-energy infrastructure presents economic opportunities on both national and local levels. Brighter Planet gives priority to projects constructed using local labor and materials.