Guidance has been produced on carbon offsetting for the public sector, and should be read in the first instance by public sector organisations considering whether to offset emissions.
The guidance is in both English and Welsh language versions:
Buying Solutions has operated the Government Carbon Offsetting Facility (GCOF) since January 2010 and is available to all public sector organisations such as central Government, local Government, Devolved Administrations, Executive Agencies and NDPBs.
The policy for GCOF is owned by DECC and its operation by Buying Solutions is governed by a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between DECC and Buying Solutions.
GCOF facilitates the purchase of high-quality – Gold Standard or with equivalent benefits in terms of sustainable development – Certified Emissions Reduction (CER) credits under the Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) to offset public sector emissions. DECC wishes to encourage all public sector organisations wishing to offset emissions to use GCOF as their mechanism for purchasing CER credits.
Emissions offset through GCOF must be for a particular activity (travel, use of purchased electricity etc) or produced over a defined period of time, and calculated using the Defra emissions conversion factors. Direct end-user CO2 emissions can be offset, as can emissions arising from purchased electricity. The practitioner’s guide to using GCOF shows how to calculate these emissions.
A practitioner’s guide to GCOF
If your public sector organisation decides to purchase offset credits, the following guidance describes the process of offsetting emissions through the Government Carbon Offsetting Facility (GCOF).
To offset using the Government Carbon Offsetting Facility, please visit the Buying Solutions website.