In certain circumstances, it is impractical or not financially viable to reduce greenhouse gas emissions entirely to zero. For example, while there is certainly room to reduce the amount of air travel conducted by campus employees by encouraging the alternative of video conferencing, there is some travel that is essential to our campus’ mission. To handle such circumstances, the concept of a carbon offset has been developed. Carbon offsets allow the exchange of carbon emission reductions through a financial transaction. See how this works in the diagram in Figure 3.

Objectives:

31. By the end of FY16, conduct a Request for Proposals process for verified carbon offsets, and undertake our campus’ first purchase of offsets.

32. By the end of FY17, develop an administrative mechanism to enable campus units to voluntarily purchase carbon offsets.

33. By the end of FY18, develop a program of local or regional mission-linked verified carbon offsets. Rather than relying exclusively on the purchase of carbon offsets from international markets, the campus will develop local community offsets that are linked to our institutional missions.

34. By FY20, utilize offsets to meet all iCAP emissions targets that have not been met by direct emission reductions