Now that society is coming to grips with the problems it has created by ignoring the ‘externalized costs’ of it unrestricted carbon emissions of past decades, a new environmental industry has been born, that of the carbon offsetters.

These businesses, and there are many on the Internet, with new ones springing up all the time, allow individuals and businesses to purchase ‘carbon offsets’ to compensate for their own excess carbon footprint.

The following is a linked list of carbon offsetters that are reputable.

• Native Energy - is our first pick. It emerged from the native American community and concentrates on turning the money it collects for offsets sold into new renewable energy projects on the grid, basically keeping the coal in the ground in very real terms.
• The Carbon Fund - Their stated goal is to help drive the price of clean technology like wind energy to below that of dirty technology like coal. The are established and bona fide in the field.

A word of caution here if you are deviating from this short list. In any new growth industry, there are bound to be ‘better and worse’ agencies, carpetbaggers and fly-by-nighters looking to make a quick buck from well-intended individuals. Indeed, this is one of the criticisms of carbon offsetting rippling around the Internet.

But the response to that criticism is to ‘do your homework’. Validate that the carbon offsetter you pick is ‘audited’ by an accredited third part, or that it is backed by a name that you implicitly trust, such as the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), the Alliance for Climate Protection, or some agency of similar standing. Again, beware as many of the less scrupulous operators have very ‘green’ sounding names and may even sport the logos of well-known ‘supposed’ partners!