DECC Quality Assurance Scheme

UK Government’s Quality Assurance Scheme for Carbon Offsetting

The UK Government's Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has launched a new Quality Assurance Scheme for carbon offsetting. Carbon Footprint Ltd is proud to be one of the first companies to offer carbon offsets which meet this new Quality Assurance standard.

What is the "Quality Assurance Scheme"?

The Quality Assurance Scheme (previously known as DEFRA's Code of Best Practice for Carbon Offsetting) is part of a wider government-led strategy to persuade everyone to reduce their carbon emissions. Like Carbon Footprint Ltd, the UK government recommends that measuring and reducing CO2 emissions are the first steps we should take to lower our impact on climate change.

The next step is to consider offsetting the remaining unavoidable emissions or those which have already been emitted. The UK government has created the APPROVED CARBON OFFSETTING brand to use as an endorsement on offsets approved by the UK government.

The Quality Assurance Mark, gives confidence to businesses and individuals that the calculation methodology being used has been verified by the government and the offset project meets Kyoto and government high standards. In addition the government has an audit process to verify offset providers are following this standard and fullfilling the full offsetting obligations for their customers.

How do I buy Approved Carbon Offsets?

You will see the Quality Assurance logo on our offset product selection page, following a calculation of your carbon emissions.

The logo is shown against approved carbon offset projects, following carbon footprint calculations which use the approved UK calculation emission factors.

At the moment only Kyoto Compliant Certified Emission Reduction (CER) credits and EUAs carry this mark. However, the UK government will work with carbon offset providers and expects to include Voluntary Emission Reduction (VER) projects in the future.

Which online calculations are approved?

All our calculators are approved, our domestic*, business* and flight only calculator.

* for UK residents (home and business electricity factors) only. Note the household offsetting is only approved where the secondary footprint is not included, due to the uncertainty in this estimation.

Are all our offset projects approved?

The Quality Assurance Scheme only gives government backing to Kyoto approved projects such as Certified Emission Reductions (CERs).

However, we offer a range of voluntary offsets, that may be more applicable to your requirements, in terms of the added social, economical and wider environmental benefits in addition to the carbon reductions. These projects are typically small scale, where the registration costs for full CER registration would be inhibitive.

The same calculation method is used for all offset projects, whether you select the government Quality Approved offset, or one of the voluntary offset projects.

Note, the quality mark next to the offset project is only displayed if a calculation has been performed, as the government standard requires a calculation to be made using the approved methodology and emission factors.

Look out for this logo: