Tribewanted: Vorovoro

When I was in Hawai this past September, I had the great fortune to meet a man named Jonny Dubowski. I was on the big island with my dad to inspect an access road to a piece of property that he had invested in. Jonny and his partners have started a carbon offsets company and they were exploring a forestry project on my dads land. As we sat talking story it quickly became evident that we shared many of the same goals and that benefits of a partnership between Tribewanted and True Offsets would be numerous and far reaching. I have spent the past few months coresponding with Jonny and every time we talk new and exciting prospects open and begin to materialize. Here is what Jonny had to say about his new company.

True Offsets is a new kind of carbon offset company. As an industry, carbon offsetting is relatively new, and as a result, many of the companies that have been providing carbon offsets over the last 8 or 9 years have been learning as they go. True Offsets was founded to correct the mistakes that are being made in the industry. True Offsets enables everyone who wishes to mitigate the impact of their green house gas (GHG) emissions to do so in a consistent, reliable, efficient and transparent fashion. Carbon offsets have gotten a bit of a bad rap in the past few years and we feel that our aproach will change the tune of the carbon offset debate.

Recently a slew of new international standards have popped up after allegations of fraud and double-counting amongst carbon offset venders sent shockwaves through the carbon market earlier this year. The Voluntary Carbon Standard (VCS), the standard that True Offsets adhers to, aims to certify the validity of voluntary offsets, (VERs) bought by consumers and corporations seeking to reduce their planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions, or ‘carbon footprint’.

“The VCS means business and consumer buyers can now trust the offsets they buy,” Mark Kenber, policy director for environmental consultants The Climate Group, said in a statement.”Its robust quality assurance will trigger a new global confidence in the voluntary market from corporate buyers, consumers and policy makers.” This standard, endorsed by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), guarantees permanent emissions reductions that have been independently verified and incorporates a registry that prevents vendors from selling the same offsets twice.

With their simple bar-coding system True Offsets brings total transparency to the world of emission reduction projects. The life cycle of each tree purchased, roughly $40, can be tracked online. True Offsets customers can actually see how much carbon their tree, or grove of trees, is sequestering. When the tree is harvested as part of their sustainable forestry management plan the buyer learns what the wood will become, be it skateboards, building materials, furniture, etc, and recives a portion of the profits from the sale of these end products. Because a dead tree emits all the carbon it has absorbed back into the atmosphere harvesting the trees and turning them into environmently friendly products is the only way to permanently sequester carbon through forestry.

Based in Hawai’i, True Offsets moves past the term ‘carbon offsets’. You can never undo your negative impact on the planet- merely mitigate it. True Offset’s projects help communities to develop long-term environmental strategies that identify all impacts and help mitigate GHG emmissions. Through a combination of technological and educational support True Offsets helps insure that these strategies are carried forward while helping to stimulate the local economy and develop green job pathways for all people. The emission reduction and ecological restoration projects measure exact amounts of renewable energy produced, as well as CO2 sequestered.

True Offsets is a new model for green business, realizing that carbon offsets are only an intermediary tool for helping communities and businesses advance towards a post-carbon and sustainable life-style, their ecological restoration, renewable energy, and forestry projects have attracted worldwide media attention. “We’re making carbon offsets a serious investment toward a carbon neutral planet through transparent reforestation and renewable energy projects,” Dubowsky says. “It is prety clear what needs to be done, we just need to provide people with the tools necessary to follow through.”

Public perception has been that corporate sustainability initiatives are heavy on marketing and light on remediation. Corporations are now aware that putting resources into improving the sustainability of their buisness processes is not only going to boost effeciency but will also help with customer relations. True Offsets is helping corporations to repair damage that has been done through green washing. If they refuse to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, they face a public relations liability

So, it’s been a long time coming, but I am very happy to announce a new strategic partnership between Tribewanted and True Offsets to set the standard in the eradication of the carbon footprints of communities. Combining the uniquely integrated online and on-island communities of Tribewanted with the innovative carbon monitoring and accounting methods developed by True Offsets the new partnership will provide a simple yet detailed framework for carbon reductions that will serve both the skeptical carbon novice as well as forward thinking world leaders. The Island of Vorovoro provides a unique opportunity to explore the possibilities of carbon neutral communities. Living on a small island really gives you a unique perspective on how we use our resources as well as how our actions effect our environment. We’ve been here since September 2006, and the knowledge and experience we’ve gained since then is invaluable. This new partnership will help us to make our goals of carbon neutral living a reality and to present our experiences so that others can benefit.