ASA upholds another complaint about green energy packages
The ASA today ruled that a British Gas advert that has been on TV recently was misleading because it claimed that the company supplies ‘zero carbon’ gas. Apparently this could imply that fuel itself produces no carbon dioxide when burnt – when in fact ‘zero carbon’ is achieved through offset credits (how else could burning gas be ‘zero carbon’?).
Utility customers are connected to a shared supply and it is not feasible to determine the actual source of each customer’s energy. To deliver a green energy package, the supplier must use some type of offset scheme or a promise to ‘match’ the customer’s energy use with clean generators.
This is the second time in the past few months that the ASA has questioned whether these principles are properly understood. In November, the watchdog banned an Npower ad that might imply that Npower somehow powers Wembley Stadium with purely renewable electricity via National Grid (impossible, of course).
February 6, 2008 at 5:04 pm
Hi Dan,
I wanted to come to your blog and read a few of your posts before I reply to your thoughtful comment on my Green prophet blog. Overall I think we take a similar approach to the climate change issue in that we both try to be balanced & objective (and critical when necessary).
In response to this blog, I’m beginning to think the whole idea of carbon offsets is turning out to be snake oil. However, there is an evolution of carbon offsetting that my friend at ExquisiteSafaris.com is calling carbon offsetting 2.0. The basic premise is this, instead of a company paying a third party to “offset” their carbon footprint, they are aligning themselves directly with green companies to help reduce their footprint. For example, Shell might invest in a clean energy company such as wind power. This may not be an optimal example, but I think it gets to the idea.
Here are some links that you might find interesting:
http://www.exquisitesafaris.com/index.php/journal/more/carbon_offsetting_eco
_travel/
http://terrainorg.blogspot.com/2008/01/carbon-offsets-from-earth-talk.html