The significance of carbon offsets in managing an eco-friendly vacation rental responsibly

How to responsibly use offsets to reduce your carbon footprint

It’s time to rethink our relationship with carbon offsets. As difficult as it might be to accept, they’re not the hero we think they are.

Relying on offsets to reach net zero by 2050 simply won’t work. In fact, by giving us the illusion that we’re meaningfully reducing our emissions, offsets can make us complacent, meaning that we actually continue to increase our carbon footprint.

So, should we just abandon carbon offsetting schemes altogether? Not exactly. Carbon offsets have a role to play in our journey towards net zero, but it’s a limited one. They should be an additional part of your sustainability toolkit, not the foundation on which it’s built.

If you’re a short-term rental operator who wants to see the benefits of sincere sustainable action, then read on to discover how you can use carbon offsets responsibly.

What is carbon offsetting?

Nowadays, carbon offsetting is a lot more than just tree planting. In the simplest terms, it involves putting money towards a project which either removes carbon from the atmosphere or reduces future emissions. In theory, this contribution balances out your own business emissions.

A carbon credit represents one metric tonne of carbon dioxide. So, if you buy one carbon offset credit, you’re paying to offset one metric tonne of CO2. Carbon offset schemes might put your money towards:

• the development of renewable energy
• conservation projects
• improved building insulation

In short, a variety of projects either sequester carbon or reduce emissions in another context.

Carbon offsetting vs. carbon removal

“Carbon offsetting” is an umbrella term for projects that reduce the total amount of carbon dioxide we release into the atmosphere. Many offset strategies—such as investment in renewable energy—reduce the amount of carbon we’re likely to emit in the future but don’t remove the carbon already in the atmosphere.

Within carbon offsetting, there are carbon removal projects, which reverse some of the damage we’ve already done by taking carbon back out of the atmosphere. Carbon removal is the most difficult form of carbon offsetting, and there isn’t currently enough capacity to keep up with demand. This means that it’s also the most expensive way to offset. In addition, the carbon removal technology currently available has a finite capacity. At the moment, it can’t remove all of our global excess emissions. If we all rely on carbon removal and offsetting schemes without actually reducing our emissions, reaching net zero simply won’t be possible.

Offsetting carbon emissions will only take us so far

It’s easy to think of carbon offset projects as a simple matter of addition and subtraction. You add carbon to the atmosphere through your vacation rental business’s CO2 emissions. You then remove that carbon through an offset scheme. Overall, you’re carbon neutral – mission accomplished.

And yet, it’s not quite that simple. In reality, the environmental impact of emitting and then offsetting greenhouse gases is very different to the impact of not emitting those gases in the first place.

We’re currently at a critical point in the climate emergency, with less than six years to cut our emissions by 45%. Given the urgency of the timeline, we can’t afford to have excess greenhouse gases in the atmosphere for any length of time.

No carbon removal project can absorb your emissions at the precise moment they’re released, and therefore, they’ll always have some environmental impact. This is particularly true if you’re only offsetting your own emissions, without paying for any additional carbon to be removed. Additionally, the effectiveness of carbon offset projects is further complicated by the fact that different types of emissions have varying lifespans in the atmosphere. For instance, methane, while more potent as a greenhouse gas in the short term, remains in the atmosphere for a much shorter period compared to carbon dioxide.

Why you should get renewable energy before offsetting?

A major source of your emissions comes from your property’s electricity use. You should procure renewable energy to decarbonise these emissions rather than offsetting these emissions. Industry best practices demand that companies only use offsets after exhausting all other available energy efficiency and renewable energy solutions. By procuring renewables from the grid, you then don’t need offsets to address your electricity-based emissions because this purchase eliminates emissions from your electricity use. More broadly, purchasing renewables from the grid also sends a powerful demand signal and helps increase the profitability of renewables, which in turn helps accelerate investments to decarbonise the power sector.

To make a renewable energy claim, you must obtain renewable energy certificates (RECs) for properties in the United States, guarantees of origin (GOs) for European properties in the European Union, or international renewable energy certificates (I-RECs) for properties in most countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Each certificate represents one megawatt-hour of verified renewable energy generation that was injected into the grid. So, if your property consumes 10 megawatt hours (equivalent to 10,000 kilowatt-hours) of electricity annually, then you must obtain 10 certificates to make a 100% renewable energy claim. We recommend checking out Zero Labs as a renewable energy partner.

How to use carbon offsets and avoid greenwashing

Offsetting your carbon footprint is a useful tool for helping your short-term rental business to transition to net zero. It can be one strategy within a realistic, actionable plan that shows how you’ll remove carbon from your business by 2050.

• Calculate your carbon footprint

The first step in responsibly using carbon offsets is to calculate your current carbon emissions. This gives you a baseline against which you can compare your progress each year.

As a starting point, gather your electricity and gas bills from the past year. Add up the total volumes of your electricity and gas consumption and convert this into tonnes of CO2 emissions. Do this for each vacation rental property you operate, and for your offices or home working station.

Calculating your full carbon footprint – accounting for emissions from vehicles, supply chains, guest activity, etc. – might take a little more time. For more support, take a look at our guide to measuring your carbon footprint. You’ll even find a discount code for our recommended carbon footprint calculator, in case you want the experts to do it for you.

• Formulate a Climate Action Plan

Now that you know your starting point, it’s time to produce a plan of how you’re going to reduce your emissions. This doesn’t have to be a hugely complex document. It can start out as a simple record of:

• What you’re already doing
• What your first priorities will be
• How you’re going to measure progress
• Who will be responsible for implementing your plan
• What are your targets for the next year/five years/decade

Your first step might be as simple as switching to a green electricity tariff!

If you’re interested in more detailed guidance, read our article on writing a Climate Action Plan for your vacation rental.

• Offset what you can’t currently reduce

Your Climate Action Plan probably won’t get you to net zero by the end of the year. That’s simply unrealistic for the vast majority of short-term rental businesses.

So, once you’ve planned and implemented your carbon reduction strategies, you can purchase carbon offsets to mitigate the effects of any emissions you can’t currently reduce. Importantly, the number of carbon credits that your business requires should reduce each year, as you should be steadily emitting fewer greenhouse gases.

Top tip: An even better strategy is to continue to purchase the same number of carbon credits even as you reduce your emissions. This way, your offsets are accounting for more carbon than your rental business has emitted.

READ: How Touch Stay integrates offsets into a wider sustainability strategy.

Encourage short-term rental guests to offset their carbon emissions

With engaging, clear communications, you can encourage your guests to reduce the environmental impact of their stay. For example, you could: 

• encourage them to use the “eco” settings on dishwashers, washing machines, etc.
• discourage them from buying single-use plastic water bottles
• remind them to switch off lights and air conditioning whenever they leave the property

Even with these efforts, there will probably still be some emissions associated with their stay at your rental property. So, give guests the option of contributing an additional fee to offset their remaining carbon emissions.

• Ensure that your projects meet the carbon offset gold standard

Another important factor in responsible carbon offsetting is your choice of a carbon offset company. Unfortunately, you can’t always guarantee that the money you’re contributing is going towards helpful, responsible carbon reduction strategies. In some cases, carbon offset programmes actually harm local communities by not consulting or involving them.

Look out for carbon offset programmes that have a Gold Standard certification. The Gold Standard requires projects to fulfil at least three other Sustainable Development Goals to prove that they’re positively impacting the communities in which they work. It also verifies that carbon offsetting schemes are actually doing what they claim to be doing: reducing carbon in the atmosphere.

We recommend Ecologi as a carbon offset partner because all of their projects meet rigorous standards, including the Gold Standard and the Verified Carbon Standard.

• Don’t feel overwhelmed!

Taking climate action often feels overwhelming at first. There’s so much to do! And yet, every small step takes us in the right direction. If measuring your carbon footprint and developing a detailed Climate Action Plan seem like vast tasks, you can put them aside for now.

The important thing is to start taking action; everything else can come later, as and when you’re ready. Start with one small change – switching to a green electricity tariff, or ensuring that all of your lightbulbs are LEDs – and move forward from there.

Continue your green journey today with EnviroRental

Here at EnviroRental, we know that creating and implementing a Climate Action Plan can feel demanding. That’s why we’ve curated an entire toolbox of free sustainability resources designed with short-term rental operators in mind.

From informative blog articles and inspiring case studies to tools for measuring your carbon footprint, we’ve got everything you need. Plus, our free Sustainability Roadmap walks you through concrete, actionable strategies for starting to see significant reductions in your carbon emissions.

So, if you’re ready to start saving on your energy bills, and to attract a whole new market of guests, subscribe to EnviroRental today.