With the motto ‘Reduce what You Can, Offset What you Can’t', the organisation Carbon Fund have neatly encompassed the philosophy and by extension the goal of the carbon offsetting concept.

Their mission statement, as detailed on their website, gives a summary of the overall goal of the Carbon Fund organisation:

“Carbonfund.org is leading the fight against global warming, making it easy and affordable for any individual, business or organization to reduce & offset their climate impact and hasten the transition to a clean energy future. Carbonfund.org achieves its goals through:

• Climate change education
• Carbon offsets and reductions
• Public outreach

We encourage everyone to continually strive to reduce their carbon footprint through sensible energy reductions combined with cost-effective carbon offsets to eliminate their overall carbon footprint. Carbonfund.org supports renewable energy, energy efficiency and reforestation  projects globally that reduce carbon dioxide emissions and the threat of climate change.”

As organisation are working in a variety of ways to reduce, and offset emissions. Including education, in which the organisation look to explain offsetting, and its benefits, plus looking to aid lifestyle changes and low carbon or zero carbon endeavours, the Carbon Fund also implement several practical projects.

Of their direct projects, they have three types:

• Renewable Energy & Methane Projects – Renewable energy offsets support projects that help to reduce the amount of energy we need to produce from fossil fuel sources like coal and oil.
• Energy Efficiency & Carbon Credits – The cleanest unit of energy is the unit you never use. Energy efficiency is the cheapest and fastest way to reduce our dependency on fossil fuels and save money.
• Reforestation & Avoided Deforestation -  Forest-based projects actually reduce the amount of carbon that’s in the atmosphere. These projects sequester carbon dioxide emissions from the atmosphere and have many co-benefits for the community and local wildlife.

A particularly intriguing strategy, though, is the introduction of their Carbon Free label,  which certifies affiliated products as having been produced with no carbon emissions – through a process of reduction and offsetting – and so are, according to the Carbon Fund, environmentally friendly alternatives to others on the market.

According to the Carbon Fund, the Carbon Free Label works in the following way:

“The CarbonFree^® Certified Label is a meaningful, transparent way for you to provide carbon neutral products to your customers. By determining a product’s carbon footprint, reducing that footprint where possible and offsetting the remaining carbon emissions you can differentiate your brand, increase sales, profits & customer loyalty while strengthening your Corporate Social Responsibility/environmental goals”.

There are plenty of reasons to certify oneself, then, and many have; the Carbon Fund lists Carbon Free Certified Label products on its website, and can be found at the following: Carbon Fund Product Certification.