Buying carbon offsets is typically associated with balancing your carbon footprint. By financing a carbon emissions reduction, removal, or avoidance — such as capturing methane from a landfill or reducing logging activity so forests can sequester more carbon — you can help offset the impact of your existing emissions. However, the benefits of carbon offsets extend far beyond the impact on your own greenhouse gas emissions accounting.
These projects often deliver a range of social and environmental co-benefits that help the local communities where these projects operate. Granted, not all carbon projects help local communities, particularly those that are created without consulting local stakeholders. However, carbon credit buyers can look for projects that are transparent on community involvement and ideally find ones with Benefit Sharing Agreements (BSAs).
Here, we’ll examine some of the top ways that supporting transparent, inclusive carbon projects can benefit local communities:
Economic Benefits of Carbon Offsets
Carbon offsets are considered a form of carbon financing, as the money spent purchasing carbon offsets helps fund the carbon project. In fact, a marker of a high-quality carbon offset project is that the money generated from selling carbon credits makes the whole project viable.
This funding from the voluntary carbon market can then create direct and indirect economic benefits for local communities, such as through job creation and adding revenue to local economies.
A good example of this can be seen with the Klawock Heenya Improved Forest Management Project, where Indigenous Alaskans operate as the majority landowner through the Klawock Heenya Corporation (KHC). These local owners have equity in the company, and one of their goals is to develop a sustainable economy that creates opportunities for both community members and shareholders.
Some carbon projects have direct revenue-sharing agreements with local communities, even for those not involved with project operations, while others involve more indirect revenue benefits, such as if higher wages prompt more local spending.
Some projects also create economic benefits by lowering local costs. For example, some landfill gas capture projects not only prevent methane from entering the atmosphere but also generate renewable energy, which can lower local utility bills.
Terrapass offers carbon credits across a broad range of project types, such as Reforestation, REDD+, and Landfill Gas Capture. You can support a mix of projects and their associated benefits with a monthly subscription of carbon credits for just $8.50 per employee that offsets what many businesses emit, while also providing associated benefits to local communities in North America, South America and/or Asia.
Non-Carbon Environmental Benefits of Carbon Offsets
As the name suggests, the core benefit of carbon offsets is that one offset equals one metric ton of carbon dioxide-equivalent emissions avoided/reduced/removed, which helps address one of the top drivers of climate change. Yet this benefit also tends to coincide with other environmental benefits to local ecosystems.
For example, soil carbon credit projects improve soil health, such as by facilitating increased microbial activity. These richer soils can then retain more moisture, which could help reduce flooding risk and mitigate the effects of drought locally.
Also, a more biodiverse soil environment below ground generally supports greater biodiversity above ground. Farmers can more easily grow a variety of crops that also have environmental benefits like feeding pollinators. That then contributes to a positive cycle, whereby more pollinators enable more plant growth beyond the farms where these carbon projects take place. In turn, this improved plant growth can contribute to cleaner local air.
Health Benefits of Carbon Offsets
Carbon offsets also tend to create health benefits, often in connection with their environmental impact.
For example, offset projects that improve local air quality, such as through improved forest management (IFM), can then positively affect local residents’ health. Similarly, IFM tends to also support cleaner water, as increasing tree cover can expand the ability of trees to filter pollutants from storm runoff before it enters local waterways.
There can also be mental health and recreational benefits, such as by preserving opportunities for people to hike and swim in forests and lakes.
Other types of carbon offset projects, like renewable energy projects, can also add health benefits, such as by removing systems that run on fossil fuels and harm indoor air quality.
Also, ones like soil carbon projects can create nutritional benefits for local communities, as healthier soil can improve food security and nutrient density.
Our online carbon offset customers support the Terrapass Global Portfolio, which includes a diverse mix of projects spanning North America, Asia, and South America. These project types, such as Reforestation, Orphan Oil Well Closure, and Residential Solar Installation, provide many associated benefits, such as to the health and economies of the areas where the projects are located.
Businesses can also work with our team of sustainability experts to develop a custom carbon offset program based on your goals and values.
Social Benefits of Carbon Offsets
The social benefits of carbon offsets overlap with areas like food and economic security, but these projects can also support a wide range of other social goals, like gender equality, cultural preservation, and peaceful societies.
These may be lofty goals that require more than just carbon offsets, but these projects can provide positive steps in the right direction.
For example, a conservation project could provide a win-win solution for a government that may be trying to expand its economy and local communities that want to preserve their ancestral lands. Provided that the project is managed in a way that respects local traditions while providing a stable revenue stream, that could help avoid land disputes and civil unrest.
Moreover, projects with BSAs may include provisions to fund local education, which can support a more inclusive society, such as if it gives more young girls access to education in developing regions.
One example of a project with broad-based social goals is the Rimba Raya Biodiversity Reserve Project, which focuses on preserving tropical peat swamp forest in Indonesia, rather than converting the land into palm oil estates. As such, the project not only prevents GHG emissions from this conversion but supports all 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by funding a wide range of initiatives, like building libraries, training community fire brigades, and distributing solar generators to village community centers.
Fund Carbon Projects That Align With Your Goals
As these examples of co-benefits show, buying carbon offsets gives you substantial ability to make a positive impact on the world, beyond the direct climate benefit of offsetting emissions.
Terrapass supports a broad range of carbon projects that you can explore to see how these align with specific SDGs and benefit local communities. From there, you might choose to purchase a carbon offset subscription that funds a mix of projects with broad co-benefits. Or, businesses with more specific corporate sustainability goals can work with our team to develop custom carbon offset programs.
By working with our team of sustainability experts, you can balance your carbon footprint while supporting positive outcomes in communities around the world. Reach out to see how you can expand your impact with high-quality carbon offsets.
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