Nike abandons carbon offsets purchases

"But Nike also reported that it had stopped purchasing carbon offsets to counter emissions generated by employee air travel and that it was moving away from buying renewable energy certificates to compensate for use of fossil-fuel generated electricity at its own facilities —

• practices it considered temporary and
• difficult to verify.

Offsets have come under scrutiny of late, and some question whether renewable energy certificates – which are supposed to stimulate the creation of new renewable energy projects –

• are simply a payment to a project that would have occurred anyway.

“Rather than purchase renewable energy certificates to achieve climate neutrality, which have become increasingly controversial,” the report stated,

• “we believe it is more meaningful to invest in energy efficiency and in distributed energy projects that reduce our reliance on grid energy and help stabilize energy costs for the long term.”

As for air travel, in place of buying offsets, the company is investing heavily in teleconferencing technologies that will

• decrease the need for travel and save money."...

"Nike Makes Environmental Strides and Abandons Carbon Offsets," NY Times Green, Inc., blog, 2/2/10, via Tom Nelson

• MLB teams exposed to carbon offsets may lose money," 12/16/09

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