Why Carbon Offsets (Should) Matter to New Home Buyers

Sustainable building choices can only go so far in reducing net CO2 to zero. High quality carbon offsets offer a way for well-intentioned clients to close the final gap.

Earlier this year, the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service reported that, for the first time ever, global warming exceeded 1.5 degrees Celsius across an entire year. Scientists claim that urgent action to cut carbon emissions can still slow warming, but they also assert that we’re quickly reaching a critical tipping point wherein the threat multiplier of climate change will lead us into uncharted territory.

We can—and must—decarbonize our economy through the electrification of buildings and transportation, adoption of renewable energy, modification of manufacturing, and deployment of regenerative agricultural practices, but these things take time.  

At a more micro level, the building industry can act as a conduit of information for the next generation of homeowners. Here’s a brief primer on how to talk to a client about adding carbon offsets as part of their “getting to zero CO₂” strategy. In effect, they’ll be engaging you, the builder, to play carbon broker for them, investing selectively in technologies with a track record of cutting carbon emissions.

What Are Carbon Offsets?

A carbon offset is a transaction that removes CO₂ or other greenhouse gases from the atmosphere to compensate for emissions made elsewhere.  

The most common carbon offset projects today focus on emissions reductions (like landfill gas capture), forest management and conservation, biodiversity protection, renewable energy, biochar, and direct air capture.  

Large corporations with high carbon emissions purchase carbon offsets.  Smaller, less-polluting companies—as well as individuals—can purchase voluntary CO₂ offsets to counterbalance emissions from buildings, manufacturing, travel, energy use, and other polluting activities. 

Carbon offsets are particularly important in the building industry, because the built environment is one of the most conspicuously consumptive sectors of our economy. The sourcing and manufacturing of materials, construction process, and ongoing operations of homes and buildings require an immense amount of energy and emit a substantial amount of pollution.

While a sustainable built environment begins with climate responsive design, energy efficiency, electrification, renewable energy, water conservation, and ecosystem protection, the purchase of well-managed carbon offsets allows builders, developers, manufacturers, energy companies, homeowners, and other stakeholders to mitigate the emissions from and environmental impact of projects.

Greenwashing Concerns

Some critics argue that carbon offsets enable companies to greenwash.  That’s certainly true in some cases. For example, if a highly polluting company purchases carbon offsets and claims that it is carbon neutral, that’s greenwashing.  

However, the responsible use of carbon offsets to help manufacturers, builders, and homeowners reach the “last mile” of their targets—after they have deployed other strategies to enhance the sustainability of their products, projects and homes—is prudent and essential. This is in light of the fact that there simply aren’t enough carbon neutral products, transportation options, manufacturing innovations, or installation practices available to create structures that are net zero embodied carbon at this time.

Carbon Offsets Quality Control

Unfortunately, the voluntary carbon offsets market is currently fractured and confusing, and not all carbon offsets are created equal.  

Carbon offset projects vary in terms of efficacy. For example, projects such as tree planting are intended to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through sequestration.

However, tree planting sequestration schemes can backfire in wildfires or invasive species incursions, or even destroy carbon-sequestering ecosystems such as peatlands if they are not planned carefully and placed appropriately. In addition, once these trees die, the sequestered carbon is released back into the atmosphere, making these projects impermanent. 

On the flip side, gas capture projects are typically regarded as high quality, as they permanently dispose of emissions. High-quality carbon offsets are developed, critiqued, and managed in consultation with the expertise of third-party earth and climate scientists, address additionality, provide robust and timely data, eliminate double accounting, ensure permanent carbon removal, provide accurate reporting, and offer well-defined pricing, benefits, and results.

Carbon Offsets for New Homeowners

In response to growing demand from stakeholders throughout the building industry, Green Builder Media has launched the COGNITION Carbon Offsets Marketplace to streamline access to carbon offsets.

Green Builder Media is only offering high-integrity carbon offsets from science-backed, verifiable projects. And, to avoid greenwashing, we’re only working with building professionals, manufacturers, and homeowners that have already taken steps to enhance the performance of their projects, products and homes.

With carbon credits purchased through the COGNITION Carbon Credit Marketplace, buyers can trust that their purchases have a real impact. Diversified portfolio options built with multiple carbon projects across each of four Oxford categories of carbon removal and reduction ensure that purchasers are mitigating risk and maximizing their climate impact. 

Builders can now purchase carbon offsets to mitigate the embodied CO₂ of projects up through the day those homes or buildings are sold, and they can also offer homebuyers ongoing operational offset packages to ensure that the homes remain carbon neutral for years to come.

To learn more and purchase offsets, check out the COGNITION Carbon Offsets Marketplace.