Reaching net zero isn’t just a visionary pledge anymore; it’s a business imperative. From investor expectations and ESG benchmarks to customer scrutiny and upcoming regulation, the pressure on companies to decarbonise is accelerating. But while reducing internal emissions is essential, there’s growing recognition that carbon offsetting strategies are a vital part of the solution, not a shortcut.
Two office workers reviewing CO₂ emission charts and compensation plans on a tablet, overlooking a newly planted forest through a modern office window. AI generated picture.
Even the most ambitious decarbonisation plans leave behind residual emissions, those hard-to-abate tonnes that can’t be eliminated through operational changes alone. This is where corporate carbon credits (also called carbon units) come in. Used wisely, they allow companies to take responsibility for those emissions today, while building longer-term decarbonisation capacity.
This article explores how leading businesses craft a carbon offset strategy that’s credible, science-aligned, and future-proof. We’ll break down what quality really means, why nature-based carbon credits for businesses are in high demand, and how forward-thinking companies secure long-term solutions that go far beyond compensation.
What is a carbon offset strategy?
A carbon offset strategy is the structured approach a company takes to compensate for its greenhouse gas emissions with carbon credits by investing in environmental projects that reduce or remove CO₂. It’s not a single transaction—it’s an ongoing commitment that aligns with a company’s decarbonisation goals and sustainability commitments.
CO₂ emissions chart.
At its core, an offset strategy sits within the ‘measure, reduce, offset’ hierarchy. Companies first quantify their emissions, prioritise and plan internal reductions, and then offset what’s left—the so-called residual emissions. Done right, this becomes part of a broader net-zero carbon strategy, where offsetting doesn’t replace action—it reinforces it. Without carbon offsetting, your business will still have a significant past footprint in 2030/2050 if you only focus on carbon reduction.
Read more: Preparing for the future: How SMEs can align with net-zero targets
A Trove analysis found that material users of carbon credits decarbonise twice as fast as those that don’t. This challenges the idea that credits are a ‘license to pollute’ and shows they can accelerate real emissions reductions. Companies using credits also tend to have more serious climate commitments and robust mitigation strategies.
Distribution of annualised scope 1 & 2 emissions change (%).
There are three main pillars of any carbon offset strategy:
- Scope definition
Decide what emissions you’re offsetting: Scope 1 and 2 (direct operations and purchased energy), or extend into Scope 3 (value chain, logistics, travel). More companies are pushing into full-footprint compensation, but many start by offsetting their irreducible operational emissions first.
- Volume and timing
Define how many tonnes of CO₂ will be offset, and when. Some companies offset annually to maintain a carbon-neutral status. Others take a longer-term view, planning for offsets that will neutralise future emissions as they gradually reduce their footprint over a 5–10 year horizon.
- Procurement and quality strategy
Choose the type of carbon credits for businesses that align with your values and goals—like nature-based solutions with strong social co-benefits. This includes vetting project standards (like Verra or Gold Standard), deciding between spot purchases and forward contracts, and ensuring transparency throughout the process.
Importantly, a carbon offsetting strategy isn’t static. Market dynamics, stakeholder expectations, and regulation are evolving fast. Leading businesses review their strategy regularly, adapt to new integrity benchmarks, and increasingly shift their portfolio towards high‑quality carbon credits, particularly those with verified nature-based outcomes that support biodiversity and communities alongside CO₂ removal.
Common corporate offsetting strategies
There’s no one-size-fits-all when it comes to corporate offsetting. But among companies serious about nature initiatives, clear patterns have emerged. These strategies reflect not just environmental goals, but risk management, stakeholder engagement, and long-term positioning within the voluntary carbon market.
Here are four of the most common offsetting strategies adopted by leading businesses:
1. The portfolio approach
Many companies are now diversifying their carbon credit portfolios across projects, regions, and vintages—rather than relying on a single offset type. This growing trend towards voluntary carbon market portfolio diversification helps manage risk, optimise co-benefits, and stay aligned with evolving quality standards. This can include a mix of:
- Removal credits (like reforestation or agroforestry)
- Avoidance credits (like energy-efficient cookstoves)
- Geographic spread to reduce regulatory and political risk
- A balance between short and long-term delivery
Read more: What makes DGB’s reforestation projects unique?
2. Combining insetting with offsetting
Some companies, particularly in agriculture and manufacturing, are investing in insetting—carbon reduction or sequestration projects within their own value chain (eg regenerative farming, sustainable packaging). While these can’t always be certified as formal carbon credits, they’re often paired with verified offsets from external projects to cover broader emissions.
DGB team member checking coffee trees at the project site. Bulindi Agroforestry and Chimpanzee Conservation Project, DGB.
This hybrid approach allows businesses to show direct accountability within their supply chains, while still neutralising emissions with trusted third-party solutions.
Read more: SME carbon footprints: a practical guide
3. Long-term forward purchases
As demand for high‑quality carbon credits rises, many businesses are locking in forward purchase agreements—committing to buy future credits from projects still under development. This often applies to reforestation, soil carbon, or other nature-based solutions that take time to mature.
Benefits include:
- Securing future credit supply at lower costs
- Supporting project developers with upfront financing
- Gaining access to removal credits (which are still in short supply)
Companies like Microsoft, Meta, and Swiss Re have all taken this approach, and smaller firms are now exploring similar models.
4. Neutralising specific emission sources
Some companies begin their offsetting journey by targeting one category of emissions, for instance:
- Business travel
- Product shipping
- Employee commuting
- Customer usage emissions
Read more: Industry carbon footprints: transport, events, and celebrities
This allows for clear communication and easier budgeting, while still showing progress. Over time, these programmes often scale into full-fleet or full-footprint offsetting strategies.
What unites these strategies is intentionality. Rather than buying the cheapest credits for quick claims, businesses are choosing carbon credits for businesses that match their values, reporting standards, and long-term vision, especially as pressure builds to back every ‘carbon neutral’ statement with credible, traceable action.
What makes a quality offset?
In a maturing carbon market, not all carbon credits are of the same quality, and the gap between high and low-quality offsets is increasingly visible and scrutinised.
A high-quality carbon credit represents a tonne of CO₂ that is genuinely removed or avoided, in a way that is measurable, additional, permanent, independently verified, and does not cause unintended side effects such as leakage (where emissions shift to another location). They are also verified by leading international standards like Verra and the Gold Standard. These attributes are now essential for companies aiming to demonstrate credible environmental action.
Read more: High-quality carbon credits vs regular carbon credits: what sets them apart?
However, recent data shows that some offsets on the market fail to meet these standards. An analysis by Carbon Brief found that just 8% of carbon credits used by leading corporations were from removal projects, such as reforestation or soil carbon enhancement. The majority were cheaper avoidance-based credits, which do not draw down atmospheric CO₂ and often come with weaker claims of long-term impact.
These findings are prompting a shift in strategy. More businesses are turning to verified, high-integrity carbon projects—especially nature-based solutions—that support not only environmental goals but also biodiversity, community development, and ecosystem restoration.
Why choose nature-based solutions?
As corporate green strategies mature, nature-based solutions (NBS) are increasingly viewed as one of the most effective, scalable, and impactful ways to offset residual emissions. These solutions, such as reforestation, afforestation, mangrove restoration, and regenerative agriculture, remove CO₂ from the atmosphere by restoring and protecting natural ecosystems. They also deliver a wide array of environmental and social co-benefits that go far beyond carbon.
Read more: Net zero: benefits, challenges, strategies, and the power of nature-based solutions
For businesses looking to invest in carbon credits for businesses that demonstrate both environmental integrity and long-term impact, NBS offer a compelling value proposition.
The case for nature-based offsets
Nature-based credits align with multiple corporate priorities, including environmental mitigation, biodiversity preservation, and social responsibility. High-quality NBS projects can:
- Sequester carbon at scale, using biological processes that are proven and measurable
- Support biodiversity by restoring degraded habitats and protecting threatened ecosystems
- Improve water security and soil health, enhancing landscape resilience
- Generate employment and local economic development, especially in rural or underserved areas
This multi-dimensional impact makes NBS particularly attractive to companies with integrated ESG goals or stakeholder-facing sustainability commitments.
DGB team member holding a tree seedling at a tree nursery in Kenya. Hongera Reforestation Project, DGB.
In fact, leading analysts now suggest that nature-based carbon credits are among the most cost-effective and high-integrity options currently available. Unlike some technological carbon removals that remain prohibitively expensive or unproven at scale, NBS projects can be deployed today, with verifiable results and community-level accountability.
Read more: The social impact of DGB Group’s projects
How companies implement offsetting partnerships
For companies serious about sustainability leadership, purchasing offsets is no longer treated as an isolated, end-of-year transaction. It has become a strategic process—one that involves building relationships with project developers, integrating offsets into emissions planning, and securing high-quality carbon credits over the long term. These strategic decisions are reshaping how leading companies neutralise emissions with offsets.
Read more: Preparing for the future: How SMEs can align with net-zero targets
From ad-hoc buying to strategic procurement
Historically, many companies approached offsetting reactively—buying credits from brokers or marketplaces to claim carbon neutrality for a specific campaign or reporting year. But with carbon markets evolving and demand rising sharply, this approach exposes businesses to both reputational and financial risk.
The new standard is long-term procurement planning, often spanning 5 to 10 years. This gives companies the ability to:
- Lock in credit volume and pricing in a volatile market
- Align credit delivery timelines with future emission reduction targets
- Secure access to nature-based removals that would otherwise be oversubscribed
Read more: Carbon credit price guide: Understanding spot, forward, and market factors
For companies developing long-term green strategies, forward purchase carbon credits are becoming a key tool in ensuring credit availability, price certainty, and alignment with future emission trajectories. By contracting credits from high-quality projects in advance, businesses can lock in volumes and secure credits from the most in-demand nature-based removals before supply tightens.
According to MSCI, in 2024, businesses signed more multi-year offtake deals for nature-based offsets than in any previous year, with most agreements focused on removal credits, such as afforestation and regenerative land use.
Building a multi-year offset roadmap
Companies implementing offsetting at scale often follow a structured roadmap:
- Forecast future emissions
Based on current operations and planned reductions, estimate residual emissions over 5–10 years.
- Define offsetting volume and timing
Identify how many tonnes of CO₂ need to be neutralised annually, and when credits must be delivered.
- Select a procurement model
Choose a mix of:
- Spot market purchases (for immediate needs)
- Forward contracts (to secure future credit delivery)
- Choose a project partner
Assess developer track record, project permanence, verification standards, and alignment with corporate values and ESG goals.
- Establish governance and reporting
Ensure that procurement decisions and carbon strategies are integrated with sustainability reporting, financial oversight, and risk management functions.
Anticipating regulation and market dynamics
With increased regulatory scrutiny on environmental claims, companies must also ensure that offsetting is transparent and auditable. Initiatives like the EU Green Claims Directive and corporate sustainability reporting frameworks such as the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) are raising the bar for how emissions reductions and offset use are disclosed, including requirements to substantiate claims of carbon neutrality and demonstrate alignment with recognised frameworks.
Read more: SME sustainability tools: How they help your business grow
A structured, well-documented corporate CO₂ offset solution—particularly one grounded in high-integrity, nature-based projects—will help businesses stay ahead of these compliance demands and avoid reputational risk. This means not only selecting verified carbon credits, but also ensuring that the procurement process is traceable, quality-controlled, and defensible under external audit.
Ultimately, how companies offset emissions—from the partners they choose to the standards they follow and the timelines they commit to—is becoming a test of their overall environmental credibility. Those that treat offsetting as a strategic investment rather than a last-minute obligation are better equipped to meet rising stakeholder expectations and regulatory scrutiny.
From strategy to impact: Partnering for net zero
Carbon offsetting, when approached strategically, is a vital instrument for corporate environmental leadership. By integrating high-quality offsets into a broader emissions reduction plan, companies can take responsibility for their residual emissions while supporting global efforts to restore ecosystems, protect biodiversity, and uplift communities. For many organisations, especially those with science-aligned net-zero targets, investing in the best carbon offset strategy for businesses is not just about compliance—it’s about future-proofing their brand, operations, and long-term impact.
But the difference lies in how you offset. As the voluntary carbon market matures and expectations rise, businesses must move beyond generic credits and adopt strategies that prioritise quality, transparency, and long-term value. That means shifting towards carbon removals, aligning with international standards, and selecting projects that deliver more than just tonnes of CO₂ compensated.
At DGB Group, we help companies do exactly that.
We are not a reseller—we are an end-to-end project developer, actively restoring ecosystems, enhancing biodiversity, and generating independently verified carbon credits through our large-scale nature-based initiatives. Our projects span reforestation, habitat restoration, and agroforestry—each one designed for maximum environmental impact, local benefit, and long-term integrity.
One example is the Bulindi Agroforestry and Chimpanzee Conservation Project in Uganda, where we are protecting critical forest corridors, supporting sustainable land use, and restoring biodiversity alongside measurable carbon sequestration. Or our Hongera Cookstoves Project in Kenya, which generates Gold Standard-certified credits by distributing energy-efficient stoves that reduce firewood use, lower emissions, and improve health outcomes for rural households—all while protecting surrounding forests.
Maasai women carrying newly received cookstoves. Hongera Energy Efficient Cookstoves Project, DGB.
What sets us apart is not just our field presence—it’s our ability to guide partners across the full journey:
Whether you’re a growing SME or a multinational corporation, we offer hands-on support to help you implement a carbon offsetting strategy that’s aligned with science, grounded in integrity, and designed for long-term environmental leadership.
The time to act is now. Demand for verified nature-based carbon credits is rising rapidly. Secure your future impact today—and turn your net-zero ambition into measurable, meaningful results.
