The A to Z of green IT

Offsetting

As part of efforts to be carbon neutral, businesses are starting to embrace carbon offsetting - the process by which companies compensate for churning out greenhouse gases by, for example, planting trees.

Green IT from A to Z

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A is for Abroad
B is for Blades
C is for Carbon footprint
D is for Data centres
E is for Energy sources
F is for Freecycle
G is for Government
H is for Homeworking
I is for Ice caps
J is for Jobs (Steve)
K is for Kilowatts
L is for Landfill
M is for Mercury
N is for Nanogeneration
O is for Offsetting
P is for Paperless office
Q is for Queen
R is for Recycling
S is for SmartPlanet.com
T is for Travel
U is for Upgrade
V is for Virtualisation
W is for WEEE
X is for Xmas
Y is for You
Z is for Zero emissions

Tech vendors trying to bring down emissions by embracing offsetting include Dell, with its trees-for-PCs scheme and Google adopting carbon offsetting as part of its bid to be carbon-neutral by the end of the year.

Most carbon offsets were conventionally done by planting trees but other offsetting alternatives are starting to appear. These include monetary offsets - where companies fund renewable energy projects to help lower the carbon intensity of the energy supply, renewable energy offsets - where companies offset the damage of their conventional energy production by using renewable sources, and combusting or collecting methane generated by farm animals, landfills or other industrial waste.

But offsetting is not popular with everyone - critics argue it's more important to deliver real savings in terms of the use of power or resources.