research funding/carbon offsets
Andrew Biro
Dear GEP-ED-ers,
Some colleagues at my university are pushing to be able to spend research funds on carbon offsets. Our current policy is that they are an ineligible expense, so while research funding can be used, for example, to pay for a plane ticket to a conference or fieldwork, offsets associated with that ticket (if desired) have to be paid for out-of-pocket.
I’m well aware of the debates around the limitations or efficacy of carbon offsets, and not wanting to re-spark that debate here. Rather, I am interested to whether our policy of ruling carbon offsets an ineligible research expense is in or out of line with the policies of other universities or funding agencies.
If someone could point me to a list of institutions/agencies that allow offsets as an eligible expense, that would be ideal…. In the absence of that, can you let me know if your institution does allow it? Please reply to me privately andre...@acadiau.ca and, per listserv tradition, I will share compiled results on the list in a few days.
Thanks,
Andrew
Andrew Biro
Professor, Dept of Politics
Acadia University
Wolfville, NS B4P 2R6
phone: 902-585-1925
email: andre...@acadiau.ca
twitter: @andrewbiro
Acadia University is built on the traditional and unceded territory of the Mi’kmaq Nation. We are all Treaty People.
Andrew Biro
Dear All,
I got only a handful of responses to my request, which suggests that few institutions allow carbon offsets to be claimed as a research expense. Federal granting agencies in Canada and USA seem not to allow it, either. However, there are at least a few exceptions:
- LSE (UK) allows it. (thanks Kathryn Hochstetler)
- Laval University (Quebec) “allows and actually promotes carbon offsets” although granting agency rules (see above) makes it more difficult. (Frederic Morin)
- U Colorado-Boulder has “a workaround through which researchers can request them where sponsors allow it…. But perhaps interesting for your purposes is this relatively new program, where one of our institutes purchases offsets for all of its researchers' work-related travel (out of institute funds, so researchers don't need to claim it, and through a CU-managed offset fund).” https://instaar.colorado.edu/news-events/instaar-news/instaar-carbon-offsets-for-researchers-flights/ (Steven Vanderheiden)
All the best,
Andrew
From: 'Andrew Biro' via gep-ed <gep...@googlegroups.com>
Reply-To: Andrew Biro <andre...@acadiau.ca>
Date: Thursday, January 16, 2020 at 11:18 AM
To: "gep...@googlegroups.com" <gep...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [gep-ed] research funding/carbon offsets
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