Cargill gets first experience selling carbon offsets

Carbon cap-and-trade hasn’t come to the United States yet, but a Minnesota company in Canada is getting its first experience tracking and selling carbon emission offsets.

Cargill says it’s successfully registered and sold more than 400,000 tonnes of verified emission offsets through the Canadian Standards Association. Reuters reports that buying emissions offsets is one way polluters can meet environmental regulations in Alberta.

The food giant generated the offsets by capturing methane fuel from wastewater lagoons at an Alberta beef-processing facility. The system has reduced natural gas use at the facility by 25 percent, Cargill said.

“This project is an excellent example of the offset market’s primary objective, which is creating a positive environmental impact and stimulating change,” said Robert Andrews, president of Blue Source Canada, a company that helped Cargill quantify its carbon reductions and market the resulting emission offsets.