How is the scientific quality of the projects guaranteed?

A scientific advisory board scrutinizes the work of the BOKU carbon offset system. The advisory board consists of 11 members appointed by the rector of the BOKU, on the basis of proposals from the Centre for Global Change and Sustainability. The advisory board consists of a mixture of BOKU staff and representatives of external organisations (such as the Austrian Federal Forestry Agency, Austrian Development Bank or Austrian Development Agency). The members have expertise in the areas of climate policy, carbon offsetting and the countries in which the projects are being implemented. The goals of the advisory board, inter alia, are:

  • the selection of BOKU carbon offset projects to be financed by offset contributions (made in the form of donations to the university)
  • advising the BOKU in carbon offsetting, in particular the project specific activities of the university
  • supporting scientific discourse on carbon offsetting at BOKU
  • quality control, in particular reviewing carbon offset calculation methodologies and the individual calculations themselves for specific offset projects

All projects to which offset payments can be dedicated go through rigorous evaluation by the advisory board. Hereby the advisory board assesses the projects themselves, the applied methodology and the project-specific calculation of CO2 saved. Furthermore, a number of social and ecological criteria are applied when choosing and implementing projects, which are also evaluated by the advisory board.