Offset or cancel the carbon footprint from your meeting or event

Once you have calculated the carbon footprint from your meeting or event you can choose to offset your negative impact on the environment.

While we do not recommend offsetting as a strategy to continue with "the business as usual", offsetting could be an option to compensate for the carbon footprint that you have limited options to reduce on your own. 

Photo: Visit Bergen / Anna T. Takle - visitBergen.com 

There are many offsetting opportunities, but the best option is not about offsetting at all, but actually about carbon removal. Carbon removal means that you contribute towards removing carbon from the atmosphere. There are a few firms offering this opportunity, but we recommend Climeworks  and their direct air capture and storage technology. Carbon removal can be a part of a net zero strategy, but bear in mind that carbon removal could a costly option so you should work hard to limit your footprint as much as possible first. 

Carbon offsetting on the other hand does not mean that you cancel out your negative footprint, but rather that you try to balance them by doing something positive for sustainability in an area of your choosing. For carbon offsetting, buying CER or EUA carbon credits is usually the main strategies.

CER or Certified emission reduction is a carbon offsetting program by the United Nations. By buying CER quotas you can contribute to a range of projects that usually aim at reducing the future carbon emissions globally. 

EUA quotas on the other hand are a part of The European Union’s emission trading system (EU ETS).  Buying EUA quotas lowers the number of available quotas for polluting greenhouse gases from the industry, energy sector, maritime sector, and the airline industry within the EU. In short this increases the price for polluting and thus helps the green transition in Europe. Money generated from the system is in turn used to finance EU’s green transition. It’s possible to buy EUA quotas from a range of actors. We recommend using Fjordkraft, a Bergen based electricity retailer.