Our Mission:
We cut through junk, jargon, and gatekeeping to show you carbon credits that deliver real climate impact – so your climate action actually matters.
About TrueOffsets
Most carbon credits sold to individuals, or used to ‘offset your emissions’ are junk – you pay to plant trees that burn down years later, or fund a hydro dam that would’ve been built without your money anyway.
Your money is wasted, or worse, it funds more pollution while you feel good about it. There are no requirements to prove that a credit represents real climate impact, and buyers have no easy way to tell good ones from bad. And the credits that do work are usually locked behind corporate contracts and sales calls, out of reach for individuals.
TrueOffsets filters out the junk and removes the barriers: every credit is independently rated and available to buy directly.
FAQ
Should I even bother buying carbon credits?
TrueOffsets doesn’t tell you whether to buy a carbon credit. That’s your call. What we do say is: if you’re going to, buy one that isn’t junk. A high-quality credit at least does what it claims. It’s typically used to address emissions that are hard to eliminate outright, like flights or things you can’t easily cut from daily life.
What is a junk credit, and how does it fund more pollution?
A carbon credit is supposed to represent one tonne of CO2 avoided or removed. A junk credit doesn’t deliver that: less CO2 was avoided or removed than claimed, the carbon was released again later, protecting one forest just pushed the logging into the forest next door, and so on. But buyers still treat the purchase as covering their emissions, and keep polluting instead of cutting back. That’s how a junk credit funds more pollution: it removes the pressure to cut emissions at the source, without delivering any reduction in return.
So what is a high-quality credit?
A high-quality carbon credit delivers on its claim: one tonne of CO2 actually reduced or removed. That depends on a few things holding up. The project needed the money from selling the credit to happen at all, so it wouldn’t have gone ahead otherwise. The carbon stays locked away permanently, not just for a few years before a fire or logging releases it again. The math is honest rather than stretched to make the impact look bigger, using a calculation method that’s already been tested and validated rather than something weak and unproven. There are several other factors beyond these that also matter, and all of it should ideally be verified by an independent third party.
Why TrueOffsets – don’t other websites already do this?
No. Other sites largely sell junk – credits that are cheap and easy to source. They don’t disclose quality or ratings because nothing requires it and most buyers don’t know ratings exist, so quality is never part of the pitch. A good photo and a good story close the sale. Nothing currently exists to surface the highly rated credits and make them easy to buy directly. TrueOffsets does that.
Why should I trust TrueOffsets?
TrueOffsets doesn’t sell credits and has no stake in what you buy. We also don’t evaluate projects ourselves, every rating comes from BeZero, Sylvera, or Calyx Global. So the only trust required here is in those agencies, and their entire business depends on being accurate.
What happens if a rating changes?
Listings reflect the most recent rating available. If a rating drops below the threshold, the project is removed.
Why are there only a few projects listed?
Few carbon credit projects earn a high rating in the first place. And of those, even fewer are available for individuals to buy directly
TrueOffsets 