Carbon Offset Freight

One carbon offset represents one metric tonne of greenhouse gas emissions reduced or removed from the atmosphere. A carbon offset is created by either a) removing one tonne of emissions from the atmosphere by, for example, planting forests or b) preventing one tonne of emissions from reaching the atmosphere by, for example, replacing a fossil-fuel-burning power plant with a wind farm. They can also provide a range of other positive benefits. For example, they empower communities, protect ecosystems, restore forests, or reduce reliance on fossil fuels.

If the carbon offset isn’t independently verified – you can’t be sure that the activity happened.

After an organisation or an individual buys a carbon credit, the credit is permanently retired, so it can’t be reused.

Magellan has partnered with the largest voluntary offsetting provider in APAC, Tasman Environmental Markets, TEM, to offer our clients a way to measure and offset their emissions from freight.

• Magellan collates your data and provides it to TEM.
• TEM then calculates emissions using its BlueHalo carbon calculation software. This information will then be sent to Magellan to pass on to its client, along with a link to TEM Online offsetting marketplace so clients can purchase offsets for emissions calculated.
• Clients then offset their emissions via TEM Online and will receive marketing assets to help tell the story of the projects from which your company is purchasing offsets.

Tasman Environmental Markets (TEM) is Asia Pacific’s largest voluntary market carbon credits provider. They partner with businesses of all sizes to help them achieve their decarbonisation goals and make a real difference to climate change, people and the planet via financing high-quality carbon offsetting projects.

TEM’s team of Asia-Pacific carbon experts work with companies, including iconic brands such as Qantas, QBE, Fujitsu and Lend Lease, to help them confidently invest in high-quality carbon credits. TEM does this by going beyond international requirements and conducting its own rigorous due diligence process for every project it develops and invests in.

TEM knows that carbon offsetting must be done well to make a real difference. It provides its partners peace of mind by only supplying the highest quality carbon credits. All projects TEM invests in are fully verified according to international carbon standards.

TEM engages with carbon standards endorsed by the International Carbon Reduction & Offset Alliance (ICROA) and the Australian Government’s Climate Active program. These include:

• Verified Carbon Standard / Verra
• Gold Standard
• Clean Development Mechanism
• Australian Emissions Reduction Fund / Australian Carbon Credit Unit standards
• American Carbon Reserve.

TEM also goes beyond international requirements by conducting a rigorous due diligence process for every project it develops and invests in. This ensures the highest levels of quality and measurable, long-lasting impacts for people and the planet, including carbon emission reduction and beyond.

TEM’s due diligence process includes the assessment of key aspects of carbon projects to mitigate any potential risks, such as:

• Whether the project represents emissions abatement that is additional to what would have otherwise occurred in a ‘business-as-usual’ scenario.
• Whether the project methodology has been applied at best practice.
• Any issues identified in the project’s monitoring, verification, and validation reports.
• Any association of the project with bribery, corruption, environmental damage, or landholder mistreatment.
• The reputation of the project developer.
• Local community perception of the projects; and
• The permanence and longevity of the project.

Magellan provides TEM with air and sea freight data to calculate the carbon footprint using TEM’s BlueHalo software. The outcome will be a carbon volume calculated using Climate Active’s standard and emission factors.

Your purchase goes to procuring fully verified and independently audited carbon offset projects. Operational, due diligence, risk management and marketing costs are also included in the list price. By purchasing from these projects, you are mobilising capital to support the project’s ongoing operations and benefits, in addition to ensuring measurable emissions reductions and avoidance.

An activity, product or organisation is carbon neutral when its greenhouse gas emissions equal zero. To become carbon neutral, companies must rigorously calculate their emissions, reduce them as much as possible, and then purchase and retire carbon offsets to the equivalent of the remaining emissions.

Carbon offsetting projects range from those that avoid emissions with activities, such as funding renewable energy projects, to those that remove emissions from the atmosphere by doing things like planting trees. These projects sequester or prevent the release of even more carbon and offer other co-benefits to the environment, the community, and local economies.

Different types of projects include:

• Renewable energy
• Community projects, such as cookstoves
• Land regeneration
• Forest conservation and protection
• Land management
• Waste-to-energy

Offsetting plays a critical role across all businesses’ carbon strategies. Some of the key benefits include:

• Meeting customer, investor and staff expectations to cut carbon pollution.
• Enhanced brand reputation and value.
• Improved brand integrity.
• Increased customer loyalty and sales.
• Meeting other strategic business goals, like Reconciliation Action Plan targets and aligning with the Sustainable Development Goals.
• Establish industry leadership.
• Market and geographic synergies from project co-benefits.
• Delivering co-benefits beyond carbon reductions, including biodiversity, gender equality and Indigenous employment.
• Meet emission-reduction targets while working towards long-term sustainability changes.
• Inspire your workforce to engage in carbon reduction activities in-house, reducing your costs and supporting your goals.

You will receive content and copy relating to the projects you’re supporting. Expect this within 1x business day of your purchase.

Retire the offsets you have purchased. If you choose a company-specific retirement certificate, your offsets will be retired in your name within a few days of your purchase and send you the certificate. If you are happy with bulk retirement, your offsets will be retired with other customers in the month following your purchase. Note: you will need individual retirement for Climate Active and other certification purposes.

The evidence of retirement will include the listing on each registry related to the offsets you have purchased.

The offsets are from a diverse portfolio of international and domestic projects, including projects in every State/Territory across Australia and every continent in the world. They comply with the Australian Government’s Climate Active Carbon Neutral Standard. All projects are accredited under a strict third-party verification standard. These standards have rigorous rules and requirements to ensure each project delivers real, permanent, and additional benefits.

Additionality means that if an offsetting project did not implement the emissions reductions, they would not have occurred anyway. This ensures offset sales only finance projects that cause additional emissions reductions above business as usual. More simply, because the carbon offset project exists, fewer carbon emissions enter or float around the atmosphere than if the project did not exist.

There are several reasons why prices of carbon credits vary, for example:

• Supply and demand dynamics
• The value projects deliver beyond carbon
• Varying implementation costs depending on the size and location of a project
• The mitigation technology used
• Carbon pricing regulation

Like wine, the ‘vintage’ of an offset indicates the year the offset was created. For example, a 2016 offset from a forest conservation project denotes the tonne of carbon measured and independently verified through the additional forest growth in that year.

The price of an offset depends on a range of factors, including the location, size, verification standard and value of the non-carbon benefits (e.g. ecosystem health and employment). The vintage of the offset can sometimes influence the price but is part of a much larger picture.

Pollution and emissions do not stay within national borders. CO2 in the atmosphere spreads across the globe and is an international problem. Therefore, you can purchase offsets anywhere in the world and contribute to global emissions reduction. In many cases, carbon offset projects are located in developing countries because community and economic co-benefits from the project will have a more significant impact there. However, you may purchase offsets locally due to the co-benefits that may positively impact your supply chain or market.

Climate change is an international problem that cannot be solved without global support. We need individuals, organisations, and governments worldwide to commit to climate action because just one protected rainforest or carbon-zero country cannot solve the problem. This is why supporting projects around the world through carbon offset funding plays a critical role in the solution to climate change.

Offsetting is critical to any climate risk management strategy, not just at the tail end once all other options are exhausted. Building in offsets today has the advantage of (i) building internal capacity in carbon markets, (ii) pricing in the cost of carbon into doing business today, (iii) helping drive further investments into much-needed climate finance, (iv) demonstrating sound risk management given new regulatory operating environments, including the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD).