Carbon Impact
At Park Ecovillage Trust, we see carbon measurement not as an end in itself, but as a tool for understanding how our daily lives, organisations, and local systems interact with the wider living world. Measuring emissions can help reveal where we are still dependent on extractive and fossil-fuel-based systems — and where opportunities exist to move toward more resilient, regenerative ways of living.
To support this process, PET collaborates with Carbon Footprint Ltd, which provides a free online calculator for individuals, households, community groups, and organisations. The tool can be used to estimate annual greenhouse gas emissions associated with areas such as home energy, transport, food, travel, and consumption.
On their website you can find your impact. Results should not be seen as a measure of personal virtue or failure, but as a snapshot that can help guide more informed decisions over time. The intention is not perfection, but progress toward ways of living that support both human wellbeing and the health of the wider ecological systems on which all life depends.
Offsetting and beyond
Offsetting allows individuals or businesses to balance their footprint by funding emissions reductions elsewhere.
It emerged from international agreements like the Kyoto Protocol, channeling finance toward developing countries while often providing local social, economic, and environmental benefits, such as job creation, improved health, and biodiversity protection.
Some projects focus on carbon drawdown, storing CO2 in forests or vegetation. Others aim to avoid emissions, for example by generating renewable energy instead of burning fossil fuels.
The Controversy
While offsets can deliver benefits, they are also deeply controversial. Critics point out several structural problems:
Offsetting can create a false sense of “climate neutrality”, allowing high-emission lifestyles to continue instead of focusing on real emission reductions at the source.
Many projects are located in historically colonised or economically vulnerable countries, where land ownership is often locked or controlled by foreign or corporate interests. Local communities, in some instances, may see little benefit, and sometimes projects restrict access to land that was once used for local livelihoods.
Verification and impact needs to be paramountly consistent and verified.
Local Low Carbon Projects: A Responsible Alternative
Carbon localised projects focus on reducing or sequestering emissions within your own operations or supply chain, rather than outsourcing them elsewhere. They support regelation and sustainability where you directly operate, ensures that local communities benefit, and strengthens the accountability and transparency of climate action.
By prioritising emission reduction first, then in-setting locally, and offsetting responsibly as a last step, we can act on climate change while addressing social justice, supporting local communities, and avoiding solutions that perpetuate inequality.
At PET, we are currently selecting local low carbon projects in Scotland. If you are aware of suitable projects, you are welcome to approach our director, Isabella Guerrini de Claire, to discuss it.
