What Carbon Offsetting Actually Does – and Why Travel is the Missing Piece
When people talk about sustainability, conversations often centre around recycling, energy efficiency, or going paperless.
All valuable steps — but there’s one area that consistently gets overlooked and yet makes up the biggest slice of many organisations’ carbon footprints: travel.
The truth about travel emissions
According to industry research, delegate and business travel can account for 40–80% of an event or company’s total carbon footprint.
Every journey to a conference, client meeting, hotel, or delivery destination generates emissions. It’s easy to underestimate their collective impact — until you add them all up.
That’s where carbon offsetting comes in.
Offsetting isn’t about avoiding responsibility or “buying your way out.”
It’s about taking responsibility for the emissions that can’t yet be avoided — and funding projects that remove or reduce the same amount of CO₂ elsewhere in the world.
It’s an immediate, measurable action that bridges the gap while we wait for cleaner fuels, better infrastructure, and new technology.
🌳 Why Scopes Carbon focuses on travel and transport
At Scopes Carbon, we specialise in helping organisations offset travel and transport emissions — because that’s where the biggest opportunity for impact lies.
Whether it’s delegates attending events, staff travelling for meetings, or fleets making deliveries, these journeys are often the largest and most visible contributors to your footprint.
By offsetting those journeys through verified international forestry projects, we help businesses:
Reduce their environmental impact.
Strengthen their ESG and tender submissions.
Show clients and investors they’re taking meaningful action today.
Why forestry matters
We choose to support verified international forestry projects because forests are nature’s most effective carbon technology.
Every tree absorbs and stores CO₂, protects biodiversity, and supports local communities.
Our projects are verified to global standards — ensuring every tonne offset represents a real and permanent impact.
When you offset with Scopes Carbon, you’re not just balancing numbers — you’re protecting ecosystems and livelihoods.
Why it matters today
Sustainability isn’t a box-tick exercise. It’s a sign of leadership.
Taking responsibility for travel emissions sends a clear message:
“We’re not waiting for perfect solutions. We’re doing what we can, right now.”
That’s what Scopes Carbon is all about — helping businesses take real, measurable action today.
Because while the world works toward cleaner fuels, we can’t afford to stand still.
Every journey matters. Every offset counts.
Thank you for reading this month blog, What Carbon Offsetting Actually Does – and Why Travel is the Missing Piece.
Please get in touch to see how you can carbon balance your event.
Scopes Carbon