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com +254 20 264 1972

Global Sustainable Ltd Carbon

Offset Program

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Table of Contents
1.0 Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 3

2.0 Companies/Entity to Participate in Carbon Offsetting ......................................................... 3

3.0 Why Offset your Carbon Footprint .......................................................................................... 4

3.1 To the Offsetting Company .................................................................................................. 4

3.2 To the Community................................................................................................................. 5

4.0 Offsetting Your Carbon Footprint............................................................................................ 5

5.0 Benefits of Originating Your own Carbon Offset Project ...................................................... 6

6.0 Steps to Offsetting Your Carbon Footprint............................................................................. 6

6.1 Baseline Carbon Footprint Assessment ............................................................................... 6

6.2 Carbon Reduction Plan Development .................................................................................. 6

6.3 Sponsorship Identification and Funds Commitment .......................................................... 7

6.4 Cost Implication..................................................................................................................... 7

6.5 Project Development and Implementation ........................................................................ 7

7.0 Carbon Offsetting Standards .................................................................................................... 7

8.0 Preferred Projects .................................................................................................................... 7

9.0 Cookstove Projects ................................................................................................................... 8

10.0 AnnexA: Developing a Cookstove Project for Offset Program ............................................ 9

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1.0 Introduction
Carbon Offsetting describes the practice of removing or avoiding the release of carbon
dioxide emissions into the atmosphere by funding carbon projects that lead to the
destruction of greenhouse gas emissions, the prevention of their release into the atmosphere
or the sequestration of carbon dioxide. High-quality offsets do result in genuine emission
reductions, and recognise that they will play an important role in all carbon neutrality
strategies.

Companies/individuals offsetting their emissions generally do so as a complementary activity

to both creating a carbon footprint and implementing direct emissions reduction activities.
In practice carbon offsets are generated as the result of a greenhouse gas emission reduction
project delivering measurable reductions in emissions through a variety of technologies,
including renewable energy, waste gas to energy and forestry.

These projects create emission reductions by for example displacing more fossil fuel
intensive activities or by reducing the direct release of GHG into the atmosphere.
Reducing emissions at source may require long-term development, significant capital
investment, and/or behavioural change, all of which take time e.g. a company may want to
upgrade all of its buildings to become more energy efficient, but it may not have the capital
to do so all at once. Offsetting, on the other hand, provides the short-term environmental
benefits some companies seek, and is an excellent way of balancing the carbon footprint
that currently cannot be reduced by internal abatement measures alone.

2.0 Companies/Entity to Participate in Carbon Offsetting

Companies that use high electricity and/or burn high level of fossil fuel during their
operations. This may be direct or indirect. They include:

 Airlines ( fossil fuel they burn during operation)

 Banks/corporate, for the electricity they use for operations, number miles its
management team fly in a year, etc

 Motor vehicle companies

 Processing industries

 Government Ministries/departments

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3.0 Why Offset your Carbon Footprint

A part from reducing the level of anthropogenic greenhouse gases into the environment
contributing to climate change, there are other direct benefits of the program as outline
below:

3.1 To the Offsetting Company

 To save money/ reduce operating costs:
By voluntarily calculating and assigning a cost to carbon emissions, you can begin to
prepare for the inevitability of an economy in which carbon dioxide and other greenhouse
gases are regulated and taxed. This is an important step towards managing carbon
emissions efficiently and identifying potential for reductions and cost savings. A very
effective way of reducing emissions is by being more energy efficient. A positive by-
product of this is that you also reduce your energy bill which saves money, particularly in
the context of high energy /oil prices;

 Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

Carbon management and offsetting is often a complementary aspect of a wider CSR
strategy, especially if the projects which are invested in reflect the locations of your
operations and give something back to the surrounding communities;

 Leading by example
If you wish to influence and drive emissions reductions amongst your peers faster than the
current pace of legislation often take a stand and publicise your carbon management and
offsetting scheme;

 Green marketing/ boosting green and socially responsible credentials

Developing carbon neutral products or services can help you to reach new customers who
increasingly care about the environmental impact of products and services that they buy.
Going carbon neutral can send a powerful message to consumers, competitors and the
public that you share their concern over climate change, are taking steps today to
neutralise your emissions and that by buying from, investing in or promoting your business
the public at large can help combat climate change;

 Reputational and commercial risk

More and more, companies that do nothing with regards to climate change are publicly
criticised and investors have also started taking into account companies environmental
footprints when valuing stock. Therefore for some companies, it is too much of a risk not
to be taking steps to address climate change due to both the commercial consequences as
well as the risk of negative public opinion.

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3.2 To the Community

In most cases the money given towards carbon offsetting goes into supporting community
projects. These projects have a high sustainable development impact to the community. An
example of an improved cookstove project will have the following benefits:
 The householder has reduced fuel costs if purchasing wood. If collecting wood, more
time is available for other income generating activities.
 Environmental: As well as the global benefit of reduced emissions, there is also the
local benefit of reduced pressure on wood resources.
 Social: A well designed improved stove reduces or eliminates smoke in the kitchen.
This has been proven to lead to a major reduction in respiratory illness in women and
children

4.0 Offsetting Your Carbon Footprint

Carbon Offsetting can be achieved in a different number of ways:

 Analysing your carbon footprint and reducing as much as possible excessive ways of
carbon emission during your operations. However this is limited to a certain level
beyond which not possible to reduce. This then calls for acquiring carbon credits
equivalent to the balance carbon footprint

 By originating your own carbon development. Where a company/entity finances a

project which reduces greenhouse gases into the environment. Mostly, this is done by
a qualified and experienced firm like Global Sustainable Ltd to develop the project,
develop the carbon offset of the project, registered with relevant accrediting bodies
and finally delivers the credits issuance to the company/entity.

 Purchasing credits from the market from carbon originators or from carbon brokers

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5.0 Benefits of Originating Your own Carbon Offset Project

Originating your own offset project or working with an origination company like Global
Sustainable Ltd has a number of benefits:

 The cost of offsetting one tonne of carbon is always low for you are dealing with the
originators avoiding cost associated with carbon brokerage

 The company offsetting its carbon has a say in the type of project to be implemented
and also decide the region and community to benefit from the project

 The offset company is involved from the start thus can give important inputs into the
design of the project a s they may wish

6.0 Steps to Offsetting Your Carbon Footprint

A Successful carbon offset program will follow the steps outline below:

6.1 Baseline Carbon Footprint Assessment

This process determines and documents your event's “carbon footprint.” This assessment can
include:

 Roadway transportation emissions

 Air travel transportation emissions

 On site emissions from fossil fuel use

 Off site emissions from electricity usage

 Emissions due to hotel room occupancy/lodging

 Food preparation and clean up

 Waste emissions

6.2 Carbon Reduction Plan Development

Global Sustainable Ltd will use the data prepared and the decision made in the above to
prepare a Carbon Reduction Plan. The report will include the results of the carbon
assessment, a plan to reduce emissions directly from your company/operations, as well as a
number of project funding options that let you choose what technology to invest in. It is
expected that a decision will be made here by the company/entity looking to implement the
offset program.

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6.3 Sponsorship Identification and Funds Commitment

A commitment is made to raise funds through a combination of corporate sponsorship,
individual donations, and event contributions. This money is then used to directly implement
an energy efficiency or renewable energy project that reduces CO2 emissions. Without this
strategic investment many energy efficiency and renewable energy projects might not
happen.

6.4 Cost Implication

The cost of offset program is averagely $15 per tonne for tonnage below 5000. For the offset
program to make economical sense at least 2500 tonnes per year need to offset. This gives at
least $37,500 per year. The cost of offsetting however reduces as the tonnage to be offset
goes up, this may come as low as $8 per tonnage for offset above 10000 tonnes per year.

6.5 Project Development and Implementation

Once the funding has been established and commitment made, Global Sustainable Ltd shall
then take on the role to develop the project, implement, monitor the project, develop the
carbon asset, manage the registration of the project with the Gold Standard and finally
deliver the credits to the company.

7.0 Carbon Offsetting Standards

There are various carbon offset Standards, however two below are the main:

1. The Gold Standard

2. The Voluntary Carbon Standard

The Gold Standard is the most preferred and Global Sustainable shall develop its offset
program to this particular standard.

8.0 Preferred Projects

The most preferred projects are renewable energy projects and energy efficiency projects.
Specific projects preferred are:

 Wind power generation

 Hydro power generation

 Cookstove and improved bulbs distribution project

 Forestry and avoided deforestation projects

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9.0 Cookstove Projects

Around the World 400 million households cook on unimproved cooking stoves that burn wood
or charcoal as their main fuel. In most cases this is leading to unsustainable deforestation
which in turn accounts for 20% of annual greenhouse gas emissions although not all of this can
be attributed to cooking. The opportunity exists to reduce emissions from this sector by
approximately 400 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent a year by improving the way people cook

Developing a cookstove project as an offset project is most common because cost of the
project per carbon offset is low. Still Improved cook stoves projects have three primary
benefits on the ground:

 Economic: the householder has reduced fuel costs if purchasing wood. If collecting
wood, more time is available for other income generating activities.
 Environmental: As well as the global benefit of reduced emissions, there is also the
local benefit of reduced pressure on wood resources.
 Social: A well designed improved stove reduces or eliminates smoke in the kitchen.
This has been proven to lead to a major reduction in respiratory illness in women and
children.
Improved cook stoves projects have three primary benefits for the offsetting company:
 They should be profitable if they can achieve the goal of producing high volumes of
high quality credits at primary origination prices
 Carbon offseters often perceive that small = local = good for the community. Cooking
projects can be large scale, but have a local feel, thereby commanding a premium
while achieving economies of scale.
 Involvement in such projects has significant opportunities to raise the Company’s
profile in the media and amongst clients.
Global Sustainable Ltd is will mostly opt to implement such projects as offset projects
on behalf of companies looking at offsetting their carbon foot print. We are
experienced from the technology identification, project development & dissemination
and developing its carbon asset.

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10.0 AnnexA: Developing a Cookstove Project for Offset

Program
Developing a Cookstove project as an offset project follows various steps outlined below:

i) Technology Identification
In developing a quality and successful cookstove offset project, a well designed improved
stove has to be identified. This stove should be tested and proved that it is indeed “an
Improved” stove and that using it leads to a reduction in the quantity of fuel used by a
household in relation to the baseline.

ii) Project Development

This entails identifying the area or community to benefit from the project, the dissemination
of the stoves and identification of all key stakeholders to the success of the project. How the
stoves will be moving from the source to the households, at what cost- whether given for free
or at a subsidized price need to be addressed here. Once this is well taken of, the process of
carbon asset development will be next as below.

iii) Kitchen Survey (KS)

This involves carrying out surveys within the project area. The aim is to identify fuel use,
common cooking practices and common meals cooked. Other important information captured
in the survey involves average family size, household monthly income, seasonal variations,
and other information seen to be relevant. This will determine the format of the Kitchen
Tests. This takes approximately one month. This survey is also important in collecting data for
assessment of NRB, sustainable development indicators and “leakages” of GHG emissions.

iv) Kitchen Tests (KT’s)

This usually involves taking a representative sample of households in order to establish how
much biomass fuel each household consumes. The process involves measuring a known mass
of fuel and allowing the household to cook with it for a known period of time, normally a
week, when the fuel remaining is weighed again. In so doing the amount of fuel consumed by
the household within that period of time will be established. This is then repeated with an
improved stove. After data computation the average amount of fuel saved per stove sold per
year of operation, can be established. After the completion of the KS, KTs will follow there
after almost immediately and this will take approximately one month.

v) Establishing Non-renewability of biomass (NRB)

This determines what portion of fuel wood CO2 emissions fail to be re-absorbed by new wood
growth in the relevant resource area. Through literature surveys, and field surveys, this can

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be established by analyzing statistics or more qualitatively by looking at satellite images

indicating deforestation, and at changes in distances of collection of wood and changes in
prices. If it is established that 80% of the biomass used is Non-renewable, then 80% of the C02
savings made by the project may be counted. In most cases a detailed NRB study carried out
simultaneously with Kitchen Surveys and the exercise will take at most one month. A
preliminary assessment of NRB is also important to preclude the risk that expensive KS and KT
studies are undertaken in an area where the project is unviable because of low NRB fraction.

vi) Validation
Validation by) is a pre-condition of project registration. The DOE establishes through field
visits and documents review whether or not the proposed project complies with the rules and
requirements of the crediting body. The validator compiles a report (Validation Report) which
is needed as a basis for registration with the crediting body. The process is similar for both
the CDM and Voluntary Market. This will also take up to one month for all the relevant
documentation and reports are prepared.
vii) Monitoring
The monitoring of the project is vital to ensure that the project conforms to what was
stipulated in the PDD. Monitoring refers to the collection and archiving of all relevant data
necessary for estimating or measuring the net anthropogenic GHG reduction during the
crediting period. The Global Sustainable Ltd shall carry out these activities.

viii) Registration
This will be the formal acceptance by the Gold Standard of a validated project as a Gold
Standard project activity. It is the prerequisite for the verification, certification and issuance
of VERs related to that project activity.

ix) Verification of the project

This is the periodic independent review and ex post determination by the DOE of the
monitored reductions in anthropogenic emissions by sources of greenhouse gases that have
occurred as a result of a registered Gold Standard projects activity during the verification
period. Certification is the written assurance by the designated operational entity that,
during a specified time period, a project activity achieved the reductions in anthropogenic
emissions by sources of greenhouse gases as verified.

x) Certification
Once the project has successfully gone through Verification stage, the DOE will write an
assurance that during a specified time period, the project activity achieved the reductions in
anthropogenic emissions by sources of greenhouse gases as verified.

xi) Issuance of VERs

Issuance of VERs will be the instruction by the Gold Standard to the Gold Standard registry
administrator to issue a specified quantity of VERs for the project activity into the pending
account of the Gold Standard in the Gold Standard registry

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