About Carbon Offsets

An Overview of Carbon Offsets

A carbon offset represents one metric ton of verified greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions, which would not have occurred under "business-as-usual" practices. Carbon offsets are a good way to balance your business' GHG emissions with real, tangible reductions elsewhere.

OneEnergy Renewables' Carbon Offsets

OneEnergy Renewables sources Carbon Offsets exclusively from projects that meet the Climate Action Reserve (CAR) standards. CAR has stringent tests to "ensure the integrity, transparency, and financial value of the U.S. carbon market." It is the only program that has been endorsed by regulators in California and Pennsylvania and is the expected standard for any future U.S. carbon market.

OneEnergy Renewables supports the CAR standard because it combines a high degree of stringency and transparency, while also promoting a large and accessible market for emission reductions. All of our Carbon Offsets are generated from methane emission reduction projects under CAR's technical protocols.

How Landfill Gas Carbon Offset Projects Work

Landfill gas is composed of methane, CO₂, water, and other gases. The methane forms when organic matter decomposes - when an apple rots, manure decomposes, food breaks down into compost, or when fallen leaves turn into dirt. It is a naturally occurring process. This means that all organic matter in every landfill in the world releases vast amounts of methane.

Methane is a potent GHG that traps heat about 21 times more efficiently than does carbon dioxide (CO₂). Thus releasing a ton of methane has the same effect as emitting 21 tons of CO₂. Methane from landfill gas is one of the leading human-generated GHGs and is a major contributor to climate change.

Landfill gas reduction projects capture the methane from landfills and destroy it in a flare (turning it into CO₂, a much less potent GHG), burn it at a boiler as substitute for fossil fuel-derived natural gas, or use it in a reciprocating engine or turbine to create renewable electricity. OneEnergy Renewables prefers projects that put landfill gas to work as a clean energy source, but some landfills are too small or isolated to do this.

For more information on carbon offsets, landfill gas, and the Climate Action Reserve, please visit the websites of these independent organizations:

Climate Action Reserve: The only program that has been endorsed by regulators in California and Pennsylvania and is the expected standard for any future U.S. carbon market.

Climate Action Reserve Landfill Gas Protocol:
The full protocol with guidance for accounting for CO₂e (carbon dioxide equivalent) reductions created by a landfill gas destruction project.

EPA Landfill Outreach Program: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Landfill Methane Outreach Program (LMOP) is a voluntary assistance program that helps to reduce methane emissions from landfills by encouraging the recovery and beneficial use of landfill gas (LFG) as an energy resource.

OneEnergy Renewables' Carbon Offset Sources

OneEnergy Renewables sources carbon offsets from U.S. projects that meet requirements set by Climate Action Reserve, including the Davis Landfill Methane Offset project near Layton, Utah. This project actively captures landfill gas, and delivers it via pipeline to the nearby Hill Air Force Base. This voluntary project, owned by the Wasatch Integrated Waste Management District, started capturing and destroying methane gas in 2002. The Air Force produces electricity from the landfill gas to support energy use on the Base.