In a paper released in early August, Christian Downie of The Australian Institute argues that planting trees for carbon offset projects is more fad than useful.
This is interesting to consider as many companies look at their carbon emissions and offsetting them as part of their socially responsibility policies.
Downie states that "Tree planting is the most popular type of carbon offset promoted in Australia but it is in fact the least effective for dealing with climate change."
"The evidence indicates that offsets from renewable energy are the most effective, followed by those from energy efficiency projects, with forestry projects ranked last...Tree planting, or forestry, can not secure real, measurable and permanent reductions in greenhouse gas emissions because sooner or later the forest will be felled, burned or destroyed."
A great point to consider when your company decides to start offsetting their IT, or whole of business, emissions. So what will provide the most benefit for carbon programs? Downie says there are three main groups (in order of effectiveness):
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Renewable energy - invests in alternative energy programs e.g. wind and solar power.
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Energy efficiency - any project that reduces energy consumption. A prime example for IT is an energy efficient data centre.
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Forestry projects - tree planting (which absorb carbon) to offset emissions.
A report by the International Energy Agency found that energy efficiency projects are "...often the cheapest, fastest and most environmentally friendly way to meet the world's energy needs."
A few of the companies generating energy efficiency credits include:
However, apart from gaining additional energy efficiency credits from an external company, the best place to start is internally. Scope up that energy efficient data centre, buy the energy efficient PCs and laptops, implement more energy efficient operating systems like Windows Vista and configure energy efficient power settings from Active Directory to all of your corporate PCs. All of these elements help create your own version of energy efficient credits internal to your organisation. Then to show the business you are saving them money, baseline the energy requirements of the business prior to these changes, then again afterwards and produce a report on the annual energy savings to senior management. This will help you gain support for future Green IT programs, and reduce IT spending overall.
References:
Downie, C. 2007, Carbon Offsets - Saviour or cop-out?, The Australian Institute
International Energy Agency 2006, Energy Technology Perspectives - Scenarios and Strategies to 2050
