A quick thanks to Solidariti for including a question from us in their Q+A with Patrick Pittman, a Director of WA based Papercut Media, which you can read here.

Our question was this: “Can design agencies who predominantly work for clients who push a consumption-based way of life claim to be “eco-friendly” by offsetting their direct carbon emissions?”

Patrick’s response included the following bites; “It’s better than nothing. But barely, and in some senses it’s worse than nothing…you cannot outsource your own, or your corporate, responsibility”. Eco-consumerism is not an appropriate response to the issue of global warming.

He’s right. It’s not.

Carbon credits in and of themselves are a good thing, enabling individuals and companies to take responsibility for unavoidable greenhouse gas emissions. There’s also nothing wrong with buying stuff you need (though some peoples’ definition of ‘need’ might require tweaking). But to encourage the culture of consumerism and offset the activities involved in such encouragement is hardly helping the environment.

p.s. we tip our hat to Papercut Media, they are our kind of company.