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Frequently asked questions

What is carbon offsetting and why do we need it?

Carbon offsetting is a way of financially supporting projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions in order to balance out an equivalent amount of emissions produced by an individual, organisation or event. Carbon offsets are critical to helping organisations reduce their truly unavoidable emissions from business operations. By supporting projects that help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, we can work together to help fight climate change.

What is the difference between carbon credit and carbon offset?

Carbon credit and carbon offset are both mechanisms used to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and combat climate change, but they differ in their approach and application.

Carbon credit refers to a tradable certificate that represents the right to emit one ton of carbon dioxide (or equivalent GHG emissions) into the atmosphere. These credits are typically issued to companies and organisations, and can be sold to other companies that need to offset their emissions or want to show their commitment to reducing their carbon footprint.

Meanwhile, carbon offset is a way for individuals or organisations to compensate for their carbon emissions by funding projects that reduce GHG emissions elsewhere.

In summary, carbon credit is a mechanism that allows companies to sell or trade their GHG emissions reductions, while carbon offset is a way for individuals or organisations to pay for (and claim) GHG reduction projects to offset their own emissions.

What are the new “mitigation credits” decided at COP27?

In the new second-tier market, carbon credits are called “mitigation contributions”. This means that a company can buy a credit from another country and the host does not need to tweak its emissions inventory. While the name suggests the buyer should not use these credits to offset their own emissions, there is nothing to stop them. Campaigners warn this opens the door to double claiming and corporate greenwashing of net-zero pledges.

Regarding bilateral carbon trades between countries, the text allows governments to designate any information about the exchange as confidential. Experts have raised concerns this could allow shady deals to go unchecked and make accountability toothless.

What is the difference between EU ETS and VCM (Voluntary Carbon Market)?

Emissions trading (EU ETS) is a market instrument used by the EU to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in a cost-effective manner in order to achieve its targets and those of the Kyoto Protocol. The EU ETS is a cornerstone of the EU's policy to combat climate change and its key tool for reducing greenhouse gas emissions cost-effectively. It is the world's first major carbon market and remains the biggest one.

Voluntary carbon markets are often non-governmental initiatives which issue tradable emission units to actors who voluntarily implement emission reduction activities. This is in contrast to compliance markets such as ETS, where actors either reduce their emissions or pay for the surplus.

What is GoodZero and why was it needed?

GoodZero was created to connect companies to high-impact carbon offset projects in efforts to compensate for their truly unavoidable emissions. It was created next to its sister companies, GoodFuels and GoodShipping, in order to support companies in reducing emissions across their entire footprint. Through this impactful synergy, our clients can quickly and easily reach their sustainability goals and help fight climate change.

In January 2023, a published article in the Guardian revealed that the current voluntary carbon market lacked transparency and integrity surrounding carbon credits and the impact certain projects had. This placed valuable, high-impact projects under threat as it was unclear whether companies would continue to choose offsetting.

This solidified the need and value of GoodZero as a high-impact offset partner that performs deep due-diligence on projects, fosters personal and long-lasting relationships with developers, and helps build trust in a voluntary carbon market that is essential to fight climate change.

Who owns GoodZero?

GoodZero is owned by FinCo Fuel Group, who sells both renewable and fossil fuels. FinCo is transitioning to a fully renewable fuel company, but unfortunately change doesn’t happen overnight. In efforts to expedite the process, FinCo brought the sister companies, GoodFuels and GoodShipping, in order to help their existing clients adopt sustainable fuels and accelerate the energy transition.

What are GoodZero values?

We believe offsetting should be the final step in a company’s decarbonisation journey. This means we don’t promote the idea that every business should continue as usual, but really encourage and provide services that help them calculate and directly reduce their emissions from business operations. We do this in alliance with our sister companies, GoodFuel and GoodShipping, who provide alternative fuel and carbon insetting solutions to clean up the global supply chain, some of the most difficult emissions to reduce. Afterwards, GoodZero steps in to help company’s offset their truly unavoidable emissions.

To strengthen trust in our portfolio, we perform deep due-diligence on every project through our holistic evaluation criteria, GoodCriteria, and re-evaluate projects annually.

How is Goodzero different than any other carbon offset company?

GoodZero is different from other carbon offset companies in 4 main ways:

Performing deep due-diligence on carbon projects through its GoodCriteria evaluation process.
Provides end-to-end services for companies ranging from carbon emission calculation, net zero strategy support, sbti validation, impact communication, and retirement of carbon credits.
Impactful synergy with sister companies, GoodFuels and GoodShipping, which allows companies to address their entire carbon footprint and reduce direct emissions quickly and easily.
Close relationship with project developers to establish transparency and integrity on carbon projects.

What kind of carbon capture projects does GoodZero offer?

GoodZero offers a blend of carbon avoidance and removal credits from projects. We advocate for the need of both solutions in order to mitigate global warming to 1.5 degrees celsius.

Finco Group is in fossil fuel business, how can you say GoodZero does good?

We believe that we are at the cutting edge of the energy transition. This means helping larger companies that previously did not work in renewables to adopt and sell renewable solutions to their existing and future clients. Cooperation, empathy, and understanding are essential in order to build alliances in the fight against climate change and ensure a habitable planet for future generations.

Finco is fully committed to increased use of cleaner fuels and is dedicated to play an important role in reducing CO2 through a portfolio of alternative fuels.

What is the difference between insetting and offsetting?

The main difference between carbon insetting and carbon offsetting is that carbon insetting refers to implementing methods to reduce emissions within a company’s value chain, whereas carbon offsetting is when a company seeks to reduce emissions outside their value chain in order to compensate for their own unavoidable emissions. Put simply, carbon ‘insetting’ focuses on carbon reduction, and offsetting focuses on carbon compensation.

While an important tool for reaching net-zero, carbon offsetting can’t be considered a substitute for direct emissions reductions by companies.

Does GoodZero give me certificate if I buy offsets?

Yes, GoodZero provides an impact report and proof that carbon credits have been retired from the market.

How does offsetting work in practice?

At GoodZero, we place offsetting as the last step of a company’s wider decarbonisation journey. This journey starts with emission calculation, which GoodZero provides as a service if a company needs assistance with this process. From there, we can help companies quickly and easily reduce their direct emissions through the solutions that our sister companies, GoodFuels and GoodShipping, provide. Afterwards, a company can decide how much emissions they would like to reduce and offset them through one of our high-impact, high-integrity projects. GoodZero then takes care of SBTi validation support, retirement of carbon credits, impact report, and impact communication. GoodZero re-evaluates every project annually to ensure they remain up to the highest standards possible, keeping the company who purchased the credits with quality peace of mind.

From where does GoodZero source carbon credits?

GoodZero selects different types of projects based on its GoodCriteria and due diligence processes. We strive to select project developers based on certification, geographical area, type of project (i.e. nature based, blue carbon, etc.) and their climate impact. GoodZero prefers to work closely together with project developers.

What are GoodCriteria?

GoodCriteria is an evaluation process developed by GoodZero that measures carbon integrity and carbon impacts in projects in order to ascertain their credibility.

What services does GoodZero offer?

GoodZero offers end-to-end service for its customers. From carbon emission calculation, net-zero reduction, SBTi validation support, retirement of carbon credits, and impact communication.

Why would you use GoodZero offsets and services?

As GoodZero offers its customers end-to-end services, you can receive all services from one place.

Why aren’t (all) your projects certified by ISO, Verra, or Gold Standard?

GoodZero projects are not limited to ones that are only certified by external parties. We are an impact-first company, committed to the pursuit of knowledge and accelerating the availability of carbon credits from projects that have passed our deep due-diligence process (GoodCriteria). We understand that it can take time for projects to pass traditional and standard certification processes, however in the fight against climate change, time is not on our side.

This is why we forego the necessity for a project to be certified before we accept it as credits we will offer credits, and instead focus on building trust through fostering long-lasting, personal relationships with project developers. Sometimes these relationships are years in the making, with multiple site visits, gathering with the team, and continuous updates and communication on project developments.

We believe that our transparency in the sourcing approach, credit financial flow, project evaluation, and close relationship with project developers contributes to confidence and trust as your chosen decarbonisation partner.

What is the position of GoodZero on REDD+ projects?

There is no doubt about the need to address deforestation in many parts of the world. This is where REDD+projects are playing an important role. In addition, most of these projects contribute to multiple UN SDGs as well as the protection of biodiversity.

However, recent media articles by investigative journalists have raised a discussion regarding the methodologies applied to measure the CO2 emissions reductions of these types of projects. This is a critical topic that we are following closely. We believe that in the interest of nature conservation, the communities involved, as well as the project developers, credit sellers and buyers globally, it is important that a consensus is reached soon about the most accurate methods to measure REDD+ carbon credits. Until that time, GoodZero will continue its conversations with project developers to source and evaluate projects, but briefly pause the selling of REDD+ credits.