Universities and offsetting

[Jan Selby]

Hello all, 

I’m looking for examples, evidence and/or guidelines on good (and bad) practice that universities might follow (avoid) when doing emissions offsetting. My institution is currently developing an offsetting policy, and the current draft is far from best practice, I’m sure. I realise that one answer (and my instinctive answer) is that it shouldn’t be doing offsetting at all - but I doubt such a response would bear fruit.

So, if you have any examples or evidence, then do please share. Please just send to me, and I will collate for the group. 

Thanks and best wishes

Jan

Jan Selby
Professor of International Politics and Climate Change
School of Politics and International Studies
University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK

Tel: +44 113 343 3525

Office: 13.41 Social Sciences Building

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[Jan Selby]

Many thanks to those who responded to my query below. Below are the responses.

Best wishes

Jan

Jean-Frederic Morin:

My university (Université Laval in Québec City, Canada), claims to offset an average of 14,413 tons of carbon per year using its own experimental forest (397 km²). The forestry school designs this forest to enhance carbon sequestration. See details here (in French)https://www.ulaval.ca/sites/default/files/DD/MilieuDeVie/Action_climatique/PuitsCarboneFMM.pdf The remainder of the university’s emissions are offset by purchasing credits. Currently, we offset only scopes 1 and 2 emissions. Long and difficult discussions are underway to include Scope 3 emissions as well. I would love to know more about how scope 3 emissions are death with elsewhere, especially research-related flights.

Tim Forsyth:

LSE adopted offsetting in around 2022. I was partly involved. We decided to go for offsets that included “livelihoods” as well as cheap carbon. I can’t remember the names of the companies but I can find out if you want. The main opposition came from staff members and some students who believed that offsetting was immoral: period. I was arguing for the idea that “carbon” itself wasn't the risk; rather, there was a need to consider poverty and rights as well as indicators of vulnerability – i.e. carbon PLUS development.

Kathleen Mcafee:

Jan, don’t be so sure that a recommendation against the use of offsets would be fruitless:

https://gspp.berkeley.edu/research-and-impact/centers/cepp/projects/berkeley-carbon-trading-project/developing-ucs-offset-strategy

“Ultimately, this effort resulted in the University system's unexpected decision to move away from offset procurement altogether. It proved too difficult to identify quality projects on the market, and the process of developing our own offset projects also was more difficult and risky than we anticipated. In July 2023, the UC system replaced its 2025 carbon neutrality goal with accelerated targets for direct decarbonization, and a fee per ton emitted (the funds it would have spent on offsets) to be reinvested into direct decarbonization efforts.”

On 17 Mar 2025, at 13:27, 'Jan Selby' via gep-ed <gep...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

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