‘The solution is decarbonisation, not offsets’
Roger Whittle, CEO, Jigsaw 24
How should vendors and partners approach the increasingly thorny issue of offsetting, either when it comes to decarbonising their own businesses, or tools they have designed or are selling to help customers do the same?
Our primary climate action objective at Jigsaw24 is to accurately measure our annual carbon footprint in tCO2e and then to significantly reduce this every year until we reach net zero by focusing on direct carbon emissions reduction. That’s it. Pure and simple – but loads of work!
Now, Europe’s tree cover is over 30%, but the UK’s is under 15%. So we really need far more trees planting in Britain. Which is why Jigsaw24 have invested in over 5,500 trees with the Woodland Trust in the last 2 years. But these trees are not for offsets.
At Jigsaw24 we are not very keen on offsets. We do not want to use offsets to achieve our primary climate action objective of reducing our carbon footprint. Planting trees should be enthusiastically carried out yes, but as an extra supportive action alongside and in addition to decarbonisation, not as an offset or an apology or a get out of jail card because we have failed to decarbonise.
What we are saying at Jigsaw24 is: don’t emit carbon and pollute the atmosphere and then say sorry and try to then offset the carbon. Instead reduce carbon without relying on offsets. The solution is decarbonisation, not offsets.
So the Jigsaw24 message is quite clear: work like mad on decarbonisation, and separately also plant more trees as well. But the latter is in addition to the former, not in its place. Trees should be planted because it’s the right thing to do, not to compensate for carbon emissions.
“Be overly sincere, objective and specific in your actions” – Find out QBS Technology Group CEO Dave Stevinson’s views on next page…
