Ross Williams’s passion for skydiving was the driver behind the creation of Carbon Planet. It was the late 1990s and Williams was a frequent skydiver. But a chance viewing of a Four Corners television program on carbon emissions made him question his personal contribution to the harmful greenhouse gases in the Earth’s atmosphere. Not quite ready to give up the adrenalin rush of jumping out of planes,Williams wanted to find a way to offset the carbon emissions he was responsible for.

“I decided that if I was responsible then I should clean up my own mess,” says Williams, who was then working in the information technology industry. When he realised there was no one offering individuals the opportunity to buy carbon credits, Williams recognised a business opportunity and approached friend and fellow South Australian Dave Sag with the idea to form a company to retail carbon credits.

Coincidentally, Sag, who was thenworking in IT in London, had been researching issues associated with climate change. “It took all of two seconds to convince me,” says Sag. They founded Carbon Planet on 12 January 2000, and spent much of the next four years researching the complex world of carbon trading, implications of the Kyoto Protocol and the challenges of marketing an emerging environmental service.

Carbon Planet finally began trading on 3 June 2005. Its first year of trading was slow and steady. The company initially purchased a small parcel of 2,000 carbon credits from Forests NSW, which it on-sold predominantly through its website. “Normally a minimum parcel of carbon credits would be in the tens of thousands,” says Sag. “But Forests NSW was supportive of the idea and allowed us to dip our toes in the water with a smaller parcel.”

Offset your personal footprint

Unlike companies such as CO2 Australia, who have targeted big corporate emitters from day one, Carbon Planet has initially focused on individuals – people who wanted to offset their personal footprint on the environment either on an ongoing monthly subscription basis or for tne-off activities such as air travel.

Sag, who is now based in Adelaide, says that the company is rapidly ramping up its activities. While it only sold around 2,000 credits in its first year of operation, Sag is ambitiously aiming to sell one million credits in 2007. One of Carbon Planet’s credits equates to removing exactly one tonne of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and storing it for 100 years.

“Initially the bulk of Carbon Planet’s customers were individuals,” he says. “Now we have a different offer for corporates – ranging from SMEs to large emitters.”

The company has also consulted – and sold credits to –major events such as the WOMAD Festival in Adelaide, which offset 1,290 tonnes of carbon dioxide through Carbon Planet. This took into account everything from the energy used to produce the event to air travel for performers.

“If we do the audit up front, before an event, we can also make recommendations on how to reduce emissions naturally,” says Sag. “Even though we are in the business of retailing carbon credits, the bigger picture is to combat climate change. We would prefer people to change their behaviour – then what they can’t naturally reduce,we’ll offset.”

Auditing emissions from film festivals to weddings

Carbon Planet has also been asked to audit a film festival in the United Kingdom, a blog from Canada – which only produced two tonnes of carbon dioxide – and Sag even audited his own wedding and honeymoon (47 tonnes of carbon dioxide).

“As we grow my ambition is that we will be the world’s biggest retailer of properly certified carbon credits,” says Sag, who is also working towards a certification process. “It’s like gold jewellery which can be labelled environmentally safe, or dolphin-free tuna. Ultimately, we’d like to see a CO2-free badge on everything from toothpaste to timber.”

Both Williams and Sag have now wound down their IT careers to concentrate on Carbon Planet, with Williams iinjecting about A$1 million into the company. “On one hand, this can be a global mega-business and, on the other, it can also save the planet. That’s what gets me out of bed in the morning,” says Sag.

As for Williams, his penchant for jumping out of planes has been usurped by Carbon Planet. Sag says: “Ross isn’t skydiving much these days.”

www.carbonplanet.com