TICOS was formulated upon the premise that carbon offset and carbon reduction is an essential component of a wider sustainable development agenda.   This premise was one that I formed many years ago as a part of my work in the environmental field and dates back to 1972 when the Club of Rome published 'The Limits to Growth' which clearly demonstrated the interconnectivity between climate change and other economic and environmental pressures of our unsustainable lifestyles.

With TICOS we take a more balanced view than most that projects which attract offset funds should in addition to helping reduce carbon emissions also have strong social, environmental, educational, economic and pro poor benefits.   Our conclusion is that there is a place for a service which may not achieve the same level of offsets per unit of contribution of those traded within the regulatory and carbon credits offset markets.   In the main these traded markets concentrate solely upon projects which deal with carbon emissions and do not have wider social, environmental or educational value.

In evaluating a wide range of offset companies and programmes I also formed the view that the imprecise nature of establishing carbon costs of travel, when there are so many variables in the equation, made it impossible to give a fair and accurate cost of, for example, fully offsetting a flight or making a holiday 'carbon neutral'.  

Once freed from this sort of calculation it became a much easier matter to develop and support projects which are not simply driven by a need to, maximise the CO2 benefits to the exception of other sustainable development issues and those which within the wider tourism industry we describe as 'Responsible Tourism'.   Our task therefore is to use our offset funds to give significant carbon reduction benefits but we will never promise to make any holiday or flight carbon neutral.

This freedom from the millstone of trying to balance carbon costs with offset purchase provides us with many opportunities to develop and support good projects which others cannot because of their lower carbon benefits.   For example we have agreed to support and work with UNESCO and IUCN's World Commission for Protected Areas to develop projects in some of the most beautiful man made and natural areas of the World, many of which are designated as World Heritage sites.  These projects would simply not be supported within a regulatory or traded programme because they would be too expensive in carbon credit terms.

It is however my personal view that the sort of projects we are developing will in fact become the exemplar for future action as the climate change debate begins to mature within the wider sustainable development agenda.   I take the view that these hugely important sites for projects have such a resonance with both indigenous populations and the millions of people who visit them as tourists that they will become a focus for both educating about climate change and in driving more individual and personal action than any regulatory or government intervention.  

It should not be inferred from the above that TICOS overlooks or undervalues the need for offset funds to make a meaningful contribution to validated Co2 reductions.   All of our projects are evaluated by a science and carbon specialist and all are independently validated.   We also list the Co2 benefits and will issue certificates of offset to those supporting our work.   It is a condition of our support that all offsets are allocated to us and no one else for us to pass on to funding partners.   We do not exercise a cut off in terms of the relationship between financial contributions to projects and Co2 savings but will be unlikely to support projects where the cost of Co2 reduction exceeds the social cost of carbon given by DEFRA as £86 per tonne.   In most cases the carbon cost will be significantly less than this figure.

In terms of our recommendations for offset contributions from customers we use the mid range voluntary offset price given by DEFRA as £7.50 per tonne.   In calculating the contribution for particular flights or other components of holidays we use the calculator developed by Carbon Offsets Ltd.   We recognize that tour operators and others using our services produce brochures on an annual basis so we do not intend to change our method of calculation in the foreseeable future.   This will give much needed consistency in figures.

As the founder of TICOS I recognise that what we are offering is fundamentally different to what is offered through the various offset trading schemes and is also at variance with the UK Government position which is to support Certified Emission Reductions and not Voluntary Emission reductions.   I take the view that there is room for both and as long as the voluntary providers work to a high standard (see the TICOS standard) and act with integrity, transparency and honesty then they add a rich variety to the choices available.

In the event that any of the industry bodies or companies who approach TICOS wants the security of a regulatory programme or Certified Emissions Reductions then we will help to find the most appropriate provider for them.

Should you require any further information about our science policies then please contact the TICOS information service.

Dick Sisman
TICOS Founder, March 2007