When are carbon offsets the right choice?

 

This year, CARAS and The JUNO Awards are choosing Canada’s highest quality carbon offsets from Less Emissions to reduce the environmental impact of The 2022 JUNO Awards. But what are carbon offsets, and when are they the right choice to lower your carbon footprint?

What’s a carbon offset?

Offsetting is a mechanism that allows individuals and organizations to address their environmental impact. Carbon offsets are designed to help mitigate the emissions associated with one activity (such as air travel) by avoiding or reducing an equivalent amount of emissions through another activity (such as an energy efficiency or renewable energy project). 

Let’s say you wanted to neutralize the impact of the greenhouse gases (GHGs) associated with flights or corporate shipping. You could do so by supporting the implementation of a project that prevents the release of an equivalent amount of GHGs, for example a project that captures methane gas emissions from municipal waste.

For The 2022 JUNO Awards and JUNO Week events, CARAS is utilizing high-quality offsets to offset emissions resulting from travel to and from JUNO Week events.

Are offsets the best choice?

Our general approach to choosing sustainable alternatives is the Less Approach. Less Emissions stresses that offsetting should be a last resort. The first step is to reduce, conserve, and be more efficient. Then, seek out green alternatives for the products and services you must use. Offsetting can be used to address the emissions you can’t reduce or eliminate—such as your air travel-related emissions.

Here’s how CARAS and the JUNOS are following the Less Approach:

1. Reduce. First and foremost, CARAS finds ways to minimize emissions—such as designing event sets with energy-saving LED technology.
2. Go Green. CARAS switches to lower-impact alternatives where possible. For example, CARAS is choosing Bullfrog Power—Less’ parent company—as the green energy provider for The 2022 JUNO Awards.
3. Offset. Finally, CARAS works with Less, a trusted source of high-quality offsets, to offset those emissions that could not be further reduced or avoided.

Ever thought about purchasing offsets for your own travel? You can! With Less Emissions, anyone can calculate and purchase offsets from high-quality, certified emissions reduction projects to help mitigate the greenhouse gas emissions associated with air travel.  Less is also the official offset provider of Air Canada. Learn more at less.ca.