A Consumer’s Guide
to Retail Carbon Offset Providers
A report from
December, 2006
A Consumers’ Guide to Retail Carbon Offset Providers
Clean Air-Cool Planet
A Consumers’ Guide to
Retail Offset Providers
Prepared for
By
December, 2006
Sponsored by
A Consumers’ Guide to Retail Carbon Offset Providers
Clean Air-Cool Planet
Editor’s Note
Many changes have taken place in the voluntary retail carbon offsets market since this report was
originally issued in December of 2006, more than a few because of our report, the first
independent analysis of its kind undertaken. Public scrutiny, technological and financial
developments, and interest in the issue of global warming have also influenced the evolution in
the offsets market.
As of this writing, A Consumers’ Guide to Retail Carbon Offset Providers had been downloaded
more than 63,900 times and reported on or referred to in literally hundreds of articles and news
stories around the world.
Clean Air - Cool Planet commissioned and issued this report as a guide to those who are
interested in using carbon offsets as one part of a portfolio of actions to reduce their contribution
of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. It is designed primarily to educate consumers about
offsets and the voluntary market – and to offer simple criteria for judging the quality of offerings
in an unregulated market.
• The information and the criteria used to measure the performance of 30 providers in
this report (and the set of specific benchmarks against which they are measured) remain
valid. We are happy that many individuals and organizations continue to find them
useful.
• The marketplace of providers has expanded, however, and, while this is a good thing,
it means that the ratings and information in descriptions of providers and in Appendix A
should not be considered current.
Even as this report was being prepared in 2006, the market was witnessing changes in product
offerings and projects. We