Carbon offsets represent the reduction, removal, or storage of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, to neutralize the emissions of these gases made somewhere else. The terms ‘carbon credits’ and ‘carbon offsets’ are often used interchangeably, though have a significant difference: a carbon credit represents ownership of one metric tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent that can be traded, sold, or retired. A carbon offset, on the other hand, is a verified reduction of carbon dioxide emissions, generated from carbon projects such as the ones we support.

We source all of our offsets from Australian projects that improve land-use and agriculture to reduce emissions. These projects can include growing trees, avoiding land clearing, and regenerative farming methods. Our dream is that reducing Australia’s emissions can also improve conditions for Australian farmers and regional communities, as well as rebuild healthy soils, plant life, and important ecosystems that plans and animals depend on.
You can see exactly which projects we support here.

One of the most effective ways to reduce carbon emissions is through carbon offsets. Carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions can be offset through environmental projects such as carbon sinks, which are oceans, forests, lands, and other natural resources that can absorb carbon out of the atmosphere. Our offsets are created through projects that are developed in partnership with farmers, Traditional Owners and other land managers in Australia. The projects we support protect and regenerate native forest.

The carbon projects we support are able to absorb carbon out of the atmosphere using natural carbon capturing methods. There are four main methods for capturing carbon, these are: Human Induced Regeneration, Savannah Burning, Bush Regeneration and Avoided Deforestationand Clearning.

Human induced regeneration projects involve a natural method of carbon sequestration that focuses on implementing environmentally-friendly land management practices on land for a period of 25 to 100 years.

Savanna Burning projects prevent the emissions caused by intense wildfires in Far North Queensland by running smaller, controlled burns that reduce the fuel that causes wildfires to spread. The emissions from the controlled burns are far lower than the emissions from a wildfire.

Regeneration projects regrow areas of native forest by changing land management practices and giving the forest the space it needs to grow. The resulting forests are protected and managed by landholders for between 25-100 years, creating new habitat for native wildlife.

Avoided Deforestation and Clearing projects protect areas of established native forest from clearing for up to 100 years. Australia is the only developed country still clearing forest at scale and Eastern Australia was recently identified as one of 11 global deforestation hotspots alongside the Amazon rainforest, so avoiding further deforestation in Australia is a critical climate action.

We thoroughly screen all the projects that we source from to make sure the ACCUs that we purchase and surrender on behalf of our customers are real and high quality.

All our projects are independently audited and verified, so you don't just need to take our word for it. The projects we source from are carefully monitored and measured at regular intervals to ensure they are delivering tangible results. This includes daily remote monitoring via satellite imagery which is backed up with quarterly reviews and on-ground field work to measure actual changes in vegetation. Independent auditors then take up to six weeks and 100 hours to analyse project data and carry out their own on-ground checks before ACCUs are issued. The projects we support provide high quality, high integrity carbon abatement that is real and additional. In other words, your car offset is real.

Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) are awarded to projects by the Australian Government via the Clean Energy Regulator after a detailed process of benchmarking, assessing outcomes and measuring results. The outcomes of each project are independently audited and verified before ACCUs are awarded.

Carbon offsets are an easy and effective way to reduce your carbon footprint and contribute towards carbon reduction projects that build a greener Australia.

While making sustainable lifestyle choices and being eco-friendly is incredibly beneficial to reducing your footprint,  it’s more than likely you’ll still have a carbon footprint from direct and indirect emissions - one of the most common being emissions from car use.

Most of us have to drive a car. The vast majority of those cars are powered by fossil fuels and create carbon emissions by burning fuel. To reduce these emissions, we’d either have to stop driving or buy an electric vehicle. That’s not possible for lots of us, so to compensate for the emissions you produce, you can choose to offset. By offsetting, you are paying for an equivalent amount of emissions to be removed from the atmosphere, and therefore offsetting (or balancing) the emissions that you produce by driving your car.

Yes. The scientific consensus is that carbon can be removed from the atmosphere and stored long-term in trees, grasses and soil. Carbon credits form part of all major global plans for addressing climate change, which is why it is usual to hear talk of reaching “net zero” emissions. The fact is, that all pathways to meeting the 1.5C global warming target set by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change require large-scale carbon removal, which is exactly what our carbon offsets fund.

That being said, offsetting carbon emissions alone is not going to reverse climate change as it is a complex problem that requires a multitude of ways to solve it. We need a combination of reducing our carbon footprint and offsetting carbon emissions if we have any hope of reaching net zero. So while offsetting emissions is not as good as avoiding them in the first place, it is an important and effective action that individuals can do to take responsibility for their carbon footprint.

Not at all. High quality projects produce ACCUs from activities that deliver multiple
benefits beyond just the carbon offset. Our nature-based projects help regenerate the land and deliver environmental benefits such as improved biodiversity, water retention and soil health, as well as delivering investment in regional communities and creating local jobs. The ACCU is a way to put a price on the work that is needed to deliver all these benefits.

Yes, that would be the ideal, and there are many actions you can take to reduce upir individual footprint. But the fact is the solutions that will enable us to reach net zero aren’t there yet – electric cars being a good example. They are on their way, and people are starting to switch, but there are still millions of other cars out there that run on fossil fuels still being driven every day. It will take time for us to go entirely electric, so in the meantime we can reduce our emissions by offsetting.

There are many carbon projects being run around the world which use different methods and deliver different benefits. However, not all carbon redits are created equal. We set our prices so that we can source high-quality, high integrity Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) from projects that use nature-based methods to reduce emissions such as protecting or regenerating native trees and bushland. The projects we support are run by our parent company GreenCollar, which is Australia’s leading environmental project developer. This means we know the provenance of each and every ACCU we source. We also know that these projects are run to the highest standards and subjected to detailed monitoring, verification and reporting on outcomes. As a result, you can be sure the ACCUs that we purchase and surrender on behalf of our customers are real, high quality, and are from projects that are making a difference right here in Australia. You can learn more about the integrity of our projects here, or find out more about how they are measured here.

Yes, there is enough land that can be used to capture carbon using the natural methods that we support. Many people only think about “tree planting” projects, which can be limited by the availability of suitable land. It’s another reason that we use other land-use projects such as bush regeneration.

The scientific understanding of carbon capture is improving rapidly, and new methods are also developed all the time. “Blue carbon” such as algae and seaweed farming are exciting, and we might support these methods in the future.

The main cause of global warming is the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. This is measured in tonnes. You might not think about gases having a weight, but they do. One tonne of carbon dioxide takes up a lot of space: it's enough to fill over 30,000 party balloons!

Buying one tonne of carbon offsets means that you've paid for there to be one tonne less of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

We’re interested in real climate action that makes a difference, and we want you to focus on what really matters. Some carbon calculators can tell you exactly how many grams or kilograms of emissions you create. When it comes to offsetting, this is missing the point! We need to reduce emissions by billions of tonnes. So as part of getting used to thinking big, we're not thinking any smaller than half tonnes.

When you buy a sticker, you are paying for Go Neutral to purchase the retirement carbon credits on your behalf. We do not buy or sell carbon credits, which are a financial product. Retiring (or "surrendering") a carbon credit means that it can no longer be bought or sold, and so it has been used.