<h1>
	Carbon Offsets</h1>
<p style="text-align: center"><img alt="" src="~url~/uploads/image/carbon-offsets_art.jpg" style="margin: 40px 0px 20px" /></p><p>Carbon offsets are a market-based financial instrument aimed at reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. HMP assists entities calculate, purchase, and retire credible carbon offsets to compensate for their own unmitigated GHG emissions. We help entities reduce whatever GHG emissions they can and offset what they cannot in order to become carbon neutral. We facilitate navigation of the carbon offset marketplace and coordinate with an offset provider or investment fund that acts as an aggregator or retailer of credits from carbon offset projects. Such carbon offset providers include Carbonfund, The Nature Conservancy (TNC), The Climate Trust, Center for Environmental Leadership in Business (CELB), BeGreenNow, Native Energy, Terra Pass, and others.</p><p>There are two types of carbon offsets markets&mdash;regulatory and voluntary. In the regulatory market, entities purchase carbon offsets to comply with mandatory caps legally binding them to not exceed their maximum allowable carbon dioxide-equivalent (CO2e) emissions. In the voluntary market, entities buy carbon offsets to mitigate their GHG emissions from various direct and indirect sources that may or may not be owned or controlled by the entity. These sources include, but are not limited to, transportation of goods, personnel travel, energy use, and waste disposal. Additionally, companies utilize carbon offsets as a value-added benefit while marketing to customers who choose to take responsibility for mitigating the emissions related to the purchased product or service. These may include consumer goods, entertainment events, hotel stays, air flights, car rentals, etc.</p><p>Carbon offsets are measured in metric tons of carbon dioxide-equivalent (CO2e). One carbon offset represents the reduction of one metric ton of carbon dioxide or its equivalent in other GHG gases. Voluntary Carbon Standard (VCS), a global standard and program for approval of voluntary carbon offsets, has created a trusted and tradable voluntary offset credit - the Voluntary Carbon Unit (VCU). We ensure that VCUs used for our clients are real, measurable, additional, permanent, independently verified, unique, and traceable.</p><p>Carbon offsets are derived from projects that reduce, avoid, or capture GHG emissions. The offset projects categories include, but are not limited to, renewable energy; energy efficiency and fuel switching; land use, land-use change, and forestry (LULUCF) activities such as reforestation; landfill methane capture and destruction; agricultural methane; coal mine methane; agricultural soil carbon and rangeland soil carbon management; ozone depleting substance destruction; reduction in emissions of sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) in the electric power sector; and reduction or avoidance of CO emissions from natural gas, oil, or propane end-use combustion due to end-use energy efficiency in the building sector.</p><p>We purchase carbon offsets on behalf of clients from sources certified according to industry standards and verified by third-parties. The sources follow rigorous quality metrics and comply with recognized standards such as VCS, United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change (UNFCCC) Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), UNFCCC Joint Implementation (JI), Climate Action Reserve (CAR), Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX), World Business Council for Development (WBCSD) and World Resources Institute (WRI) GHG Protocol, VER Plus, Environmental Resources Trust, Green-e Climate, Gold Standard, Environmental Defense, and the United States Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) Climate Leaders.</p><p>Some of the services offered through various steps of carbon offset solutions include:</p>
<ul>
	<li>
		Accounting</li>
	<li>
		Pricing</li>
	<li>
		Contract Terms</li>
	<li>
		Purchase</li>
	<li>
		Issuance</li>
	<li>
		Retirement</li>
</ul>