CARBON OFFSETS FAQ
Carbon Offsets: Frequently Asked Questions
Why it is important for travelers and tourism businesses to purchase offsets?
Greenhouse gases (GHG), the main one being carbon dioxide (CO2), are emitted in different activities related to our travels. We all contribute to GHG emissions when we drive a car, fly in a plane, use electricity, or generate waste. You can use less energy, travel less, or use public transport, but no matter how sustainable your practices are, some emissions are unavoidable.
Tourism is responsible for almost 9% of the world’s carbon emissions, making it a significant contributor to global climate change. Travelers and tourism businesses should take responsibility for this impact by first reducing their carbon emissions and secondly offsetting their residual carbon footprint so that the destinations they frequent and depend on will be healthy and thriving for them to visit again in the future.
What is carbon offsetting?
Carbon offsetting is when companies or individuals fund projects and activities that reduce or remove CO2 or other GHG emissions to compensate for emissions produced elsewhere. Travelers and companies can ‘offset’ the GHG emissions from plane flights, cruises, hotels, ground transportation, and other activities by purchasing and retiring carbon credits. The funds from these carbon credit sales are distributed to certified emission reduction/removal projects around the world, making the continuation of their activities economically feasible. One carbon credit represents 1 metric ton of CO2 equivalent (CO2e) averted or removed from the atmosphere. A CO2e is a unit of measurement used to compare the emissions of various GHGs based on how long they stay in the atmosphere and how much heat they can trap.
How do you calculate my carbon footprint?
The amount of carbon emissions a traveler generates varies depending on the type of transportation used (flight, car, boat), engine burn rate, distance traveled, etc.
Our online carbon footprint calculator utilizes average CO2e emissions factors for air travel, passenger vehicles, and fuel consumption, which are derived by the UK’s Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), formerly provided by the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA), for the year of 2024.
In the case of air travel, a passenger will emit 0.13 to 0.80 kg CO2e per passenger kilometer depending on the class (economy, premium economy, business, and first) and flight distance (short, medium, long-haul). Our calculator utilizes the great circle distance between the departure and arrival airports for specific flight itineraries. For example, a round-trip long-haul flight from Los Angeles to New York in the economy seat will emit 1.1 Metric Tons (MT) of CO2e for one passenger. The same trip in the first class emits 4.3 MT CO2e.
In the case of passenger vehicles, emissions will vary from 0.18 to 0.33 kg CO2e per mile driven or 0.11 to 0.20 kg CO2e per kilometer driven depending on the type of vehicle (standard, luxury, SUV, van, and motorcycle) and fuel type (gasoline, diesel, hybrid). For instance, a round-trip between Chicago and Los Angeles in a standard car using petrol will emit 1.1 MT CO2e. An estimated speed of 45 miles per hour (72 kilometers per hour) is used to convert hours to distance traveled.
The calculation of emissions from private jet flights depends on the flight time, the fuel burn rate, and the CO2e emission factor for jet fuel (9.75 kg of CO2e emitted per gallon of fuel burnt); as specified by the US Energy Information Administration for the year 2024. We identify the aircraft and its fuel burn rate (in gallons per hour) based on our comprehensive database of private jets sourced from Conklin & de Decker, Paramount Business Jets, and research on specific models. The fuel burn rate of charter planes can vary from 48 to 3,410 gallons per hour depending on the aircraft model. A private jet will emit at least 1 MT CO2e per hour of flight.
For private yacht and boat travel, the CO2e emissions factor ranges from 0.6 to 2.5 Kg of CO2e per liter or 2.3 to 9.6 Kg of CO2e per gallon of fuel, depending on the fuel type used (gasoline, diesel, biodiesel). The fuel burn rate depends on the speed and size of the boat’s engine. A 4-hour trip in a boat with a 300 hp outboard 4-stroke diesel engine emits 1 MT CO2e.
We use the 2024 factors from the Cornell Hotel Sustainability Benchmarking Index (CHSB) to measure hotel stay emissions. The carbon footprint of a hotel stay depends on the hotel location (country, state, city), star rating (2, 3, 4, or 5 stars), number of rooms, and the number of nights. Users can calculate emissions using the most specific location-based emissions factors available for their destination; if city- or state-level data isn’t available, only country-level factors will be used. The emission factors for a one-night stay can range from 2.4 kg CO2e to 307.6 kg CO2e for each room, depending on the location and the hotel star rating. Staying for 5 nights in a 5-star hotel room in Bali Island, Indonesia, has a footprint of 1.0 MT CO2e.
The liveaboard CO2e emissions factors are derived based on benchmarks and Sustainable Travel International’s undisclosed carbon footprint reporting from clients who operate large cruises to small liveaboard operations. For cruise ships, we derive our factor from the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) THETIS-MRV database, which offers open-access data on the reported emissions of maritime transport in Europe. The latest factor from 2023. The amount of carbon emissions generated per passenger varies from 189 to 561 kg of CO2e per day or 0.19 to 5.61 MT of CO2e per day. Thus, five days on a cruise ship or two days on a liveaboard will emit roughly 1 MT of CO2e per passenger (0.9 and 1.1MT CO2e, respectively).
Where do my offset dollars go?
When you purchase carbon offsets from Sustainable Travel International, we will offset the amount of CO2e you indicated by distributing your investment across our mixed portfolio of forestry, energy, blue carbon, and innovative climate tech projects. These projects either remove existing carbon emissions from the atmosphere or prevent new emissions from happening. View our Carbon Offset Project Portfolio here to see the most recent allocation of our portfolio, as well as a selection of past projects that have been supported. If you have a large amount of carbon to offset and are looking to invest in projects that provide particular benefits or are located in a specific geographical area, you can select which project(s) you want to support from our extended portfolio and beyond. Please contact us directly to explore your options.
To maximize the impact of your contribution, we handpick every project we include in our portfolio, ensuring they comply with the most rigorous international standards for carbon offsetting and pass our own due diligence process. In addition to fighting climate change, we seek out projects that deliver social and environmental benefits beyond emissions reductions and contribute to the UN Sustainable Development Goals by creating transformative benefits like improved hygiene and health services, new jobs, increased food security, education, and flourishing wildlife habitats.
But your impact doesn’t stop there – your offset purchase also helps drive our wider efforts to advance sustainable, climate-conscious travel and engage more travelers, businesses, and destinations in action by:
- Creating free educational resources like blogs, checklists, and webinars that explore key sustainability issues and outline practical solutions and best practices.
- Developing and enhancing sustainability tools like our carbon calculator, tour footprinting tool, event footprinting tool, and Climate Impact API, making them more accurate and user-friendly to amplify their impact.
- Researching and vetting every Climate Impact Project to ensure it delivers real, measurable benefits for the environment and local communities.
- Crafting communications that highlight the impact of the Climate Impact Projects to build trust and inspire broader climate action.
- Supporting destination initiatives such as sustainability training, climate action planning, and fostering balanced growth that protects nature and strengthens community well-being.
How can I ensure the integrity of my investment?
A cause-focused organization
By offsetting through Sustainable Travel International, a public benefit corporation, you can be sure that your money is being used to benefit our planet and protect the destinations you care about. Since we’re focused on holistic sustainability, the portion of your investment that stays with us supports our broader mission of educating and empowering travelers to be agents of change by protecting and conserving destinations around the globe.
Third-party certification
All of the projects in Sustainable Travel International’s portfolio have been verified and/or certified by an independent third-party organization to comply with at least one stringent carbon offsetting standard. The ongoing performance of each project is monitored by the evaluation agencies and their local partners at least once a year throughout the verified life cycle of each project.
Additionality
It is important to note that we don’t consider all renewable energy or reforestation projects as eligible carbon offset projects. We only support projects that adhere to the concept of “additionality,” which means that the emission reduction intervention creates an additional environmental benefit that would not have occurred otherwise. In other words, the intervention would not have occurred if not for the financial support from carbon offsetting. The amount of carbon credits issued for a project (that are then made available for trade) must equal the amount of annual carbon emission reductions that result from the project. Third party certification bodies are responsible for validating the emission reduction methodology and verifying that they are following their project plan and creating real impacts.
Permanence
Whether it be through natural causes or human involvement, if ecosystems are damaged or destroyed, the carbon that was stored during the project may be released into the atmosphere. This would undo all the effort made by everyone involved in the project. To maintain the longevity and “permanence” of carbon sinks and ensure that they do not become a future source of GHG emissions, third-party certifiers conduct stringent investigations before validating a project.
Leakage
When the creation of a project that aims to reduce GHG unintentionally increases emissions somewhere else, this is called “leakage”. For example, if trees are planted on an area of agricultural land, or logging activity is prohibited in a certain area, this may shift the problem of deforestation elsewhere. There are strict protocols in place to avoid this, helping to ensure the integrity of carbon offsetting investments.
Retiring
Our projects are listed on public registries and when a carbon credit is sold it is then ‘retired’. This renders the credit as used and ensures that it is not sold twice. This reduces the possibility of carbon offset credits being double-counted. We retire your carbon credits once we sell a threshold of 5,000 MT tons or within one year of purchase – whichever comes sooner.
What are the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGS)?
We carefully select which carbon reduction projects we support based on the co-benefits they provide to local communities and biodiversity. The UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) goals aim to address global inequalities and challenges by the target date of 2030, while aiding development and protecting the environment. We ensure that our projects align with as many of these SDGs as possible, to ensure that the impact of your offset purchase goes far beyond carbon reduction.
What’s the difference between the voluntary carbon market and the compliance carbon market?
The voluntary carbon market is driven by companies and individuals taking responsibility for their own emissions by choosing to offset their carbon. The voluntary market can be more flexible and innovative than the compliance market and allows many communities and ecosystems to benefit from offsetting. When you purchase carbon offsets from Sustainable Travel International, you are investing in the voluntary offset market. This marketplace offers us an opportunity to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while addressing the development needs of certain countries.
Compliance carbon markets allow entities to obtain and surrender emissions permits or offsets in order to meet international and national regulatory targets. These are usually enforced by law and come in the form of cap-and-trade programs where participants trade carbon allowances (credits) in order to make a profit from unused allowances or to meet regulatory requirements.
The main difference between compliance and voluntary markets is the fact that voluntary carbon credits cannot be used by entities to meet their obligations under a regulatory scheme. This means there is no steady stream of income reaching our voluntary projects so your investments can have a huge impact on the communities and ecosystems we support.
Is my carbon offset purchase tax-deductible?
No. Purchasing carbon offsets is not a donation but a purchase. As such, it is not tax deductible. A great analogy is how the Girl Scouts sell Girl Scout Cookies. When we buy those cookies it’s a purchase, not a donation. Like the Girl Scouts, Sustainable Travel International does accept donations via its fiscal sponsor, the Ocean Foundation, to support its work on sustaining destinations and preserving landscapes. Those donations are tax deductible.
Climate Change Glossary
Look up definitions of key terms related to climate change, carbon emissions and offsets, and climate action in our Climate Change Glossary.