Business FAQs

What is the price of a carbon offset and how much will it cost for my business to be Carbon Neutral?

Carbon offset pricing is quite disparate across the globe. Even in Australia, depending on the type of project the credits come from, pricing can be vastly different. Carbonhalo has standardised the pricing by blending Australian and International projects within the single offset. This not only brings the price down, but also give customers access to a wider range of climate initiatives. All offsets through Carbonhalo are certified by leading global verification bodies and are provided at the price of $19.90 incl. GST for 1t CO2. (For businesses that prefer custom offsets in a specific project then pricing will be on a quoted basis). 

 Every business will be unique in the way it operates and the amount of credits required to offset the business, there is no one size fits all. A simple way to understand how much it will cost your business to be carbon neutral is to use the FREE Carbonhalo calculators which provide a great starting point. From here you should then determine how you can reduce your business emissions which will also reduce your total offset cost and ultimately save your business money in the long run.

If you would like help with the calculators or some advice please contact us at info@carbonhalo.com

Why should I use Carbonhalo?

Carbonhalo utilises their expertise and accreditation (ISO:14064/65 – carbon inventory baseline certification & auditing) to offer small and medium businesses education and preparation for their sustainability journey. Carbonhalo offers FREE tools to help businesses get started and partners can access: 

  • Carbonhalo Partner Marketing toolkit, including example social posts and messaging 
  • Carbonhalo hosted Business Impact page displaying your businesses action taken
  • Carbonhalo business badges, email signatures and marketing assets to help to tell your story
  • Impact via Certified Australian and International climate projects curated by Carbonhalo.
  • Additional Tree planting as a bonus  ‘Paying it Forward’ for future generations (5 x trees on your behalf for every 1t CO2 offset) 

What level of measurement should I choose?

The level you choose to calculate your carbon footprint will largely depend on two key factors:

  1. What claim are you wanting to make 
    1. Estimated – this means doing your bit for the climate and Taking Climate Action  
    2. Verified  – this means  you have done a detailed measurement of your baseline emissions, you are actively engaging in reduction activities and balancing out unavoidable emissions
    3. ISO Audited – this means you have done a  fully comprehensive  measurement and had that measurement independently audited and compliance validated with one of the recognised standards e.g. ISO:14064/65 or ‘Climate Active’
  2. Access to the required data to accurately measure your business’s carbon footprint. You will need 12 months of data for your business operations normally captured within your accounting package like XERO, QuickBooks etc.

Is your calculator approved by Climate Active?

Climate Active is the organisation responsible for the voluntary Climate Active Carbon Neutral Standard and the ongoing partnership between the Australian Government and Australian businesses to drive voluntary climate action. The Standard is administered by the Australian Government and underpins ‘Climate Active’ certification only. The Standard provides some guidance and sets minimum requirements for calculating, reducing, offsetting, validating and publishing of your emissions. The standard requires the use of Australian Government published emissions factors for calculations in which are one of the sources used by Carbonhalo’s calculators. The Standard also uses the ISO:14064/65 as a source in which Carbonhalo are accredited. 

How do I know which certified climate projects my funds have been distributed to?

All certified climate projects have a finite number of carbon offsets available. As these offsets get retired the projects are retired from the portfolio and new projects that meet Carbonhalo criteria are added. 

We are developing a dashboard feature that will enable dynamic project updates for your individual business impact page giving you the information on which projects you have funded. At the moment all funds are split between Certified Australian and International Projects. In Australia funds are distributed to Human Regeneration Projects within Indigenous Areas and for International projects we support renewable energy and technology. In addition to any offsets as a bonus to our customers Carbonhalo also funds the planting of 5 x trees through our reforestation partner Eden Reforestation for every 1t CO2 offset. 

Will I be able to show the positive impact my business is making?

Yes. Every business customer of Carbonhalo receives a Business Impact page which they can choose to either have published or kept private. Each page will have key information on the positive impact your business has made to the climate, including the amount of tCO2 offset plus the number of trees planted on your behalf over the specific period of time. We will be adding new features to these pages to provide more dynamic data and information for you to share with customers. 

We suggest using the Carbonhalo badges, email signatures and other assets from the Partner Toolkit to link back to your business impact page.

Can I share my climate initiatives with the market without being seen as Greenwashing?

Simple answer is yes. There are, however, some considerations to keep in mind.  It’s important to remember that it’s not good enough to just market your business as “Carbon Neutral”, or “eco-friendly” without educating your customers on what this means for your business and how your business has achieved this claim.

Follow the guidelines published by the ACCC which are included in our Marketing kits..

Can you supply the language guidance for my business to communicate our carbon neutral journey?

When you partner with Carbonhalo we are more than happy to assist businesses communicate their climate journey no matter the level of action taken. We can supply a marketing toolkit for every business that will cover examples of social posts, messaging, and language you should and should not use.

For anything specific outside of these guidelines please contact us via mail – info@carbonhalo.com 

How long does it take to have my business carbon neutral?

This can vary depending on business type, the size of your carbon footprint, and the level of certification you are after. In most cases you will need to have 12 months worth of business data, to validate the footprint calculations.  The time it takes to become carbon neutral will depend on how quickly you can act on reducing your businesses footprint and then balance the unavoidable emissions. Some of our customers are already well on their way to reducing their footprint, so they only require some small amounts of offsetting which can be done in days. Those that are at the beginning of the journey will need time to understand, digest and plan reduction first, so will likely take a matter of a few weeks to a few months.  

What are your data sources and how does this work?

Carbonhalo has access to local and global emissions factors. These are published by various governmental departments normally on an annual basis. For Australia the (DCCEEW) Department of Climate Change, Energy, Environment and Water publishes the National Greenhouse Accounts Factors. Carbonhalo also uses EPA database, Climatiq global databases, for product-related information Carbonhalo uses ecoinvent and product lifecycle data 

Carbonhalo each quarter will update its API call to pull in the latest global data for its calculators to stay most relevant. 

If you have not found an answer to your question here, please contact us: