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Voluntary carbon offsets have the potential to contribute to reduce carbon emission and thereby meet the national and international target of carbon emission. However, the public support for such scheme in the energy sector is unclear. The purpose of this paper was to invest whether and why residential energy consumers are willing to pay to offset the CO₂ emission from electricity consumption.

Data were collected using a self-administrated online questionnaire. A sample of size 1,022 respondents with useable questionnaires was received. Contingent valuation method is used to measure the willingness to pay (WTP) for carbon offset. Finally, the ordered logit model is used in modeling willing to pay for carbon offset.

The results show that there is significant support from residential energy consumers to offset their CO₂ emission from electricity consumption. The WTP is motivated by consumers’ perceptions toward carbon offset, moral obligation and individual’s social-demographic backgrounds.

This paper contributes a new insight on whether and why residential energy consumers would be willing to pay to offset carbon emission from electricity consumption.

This paper explores the different ways of managing carbon in organisational settings. It uses a sequential mixed methods approach – literature review, discussions with sustainability thought leaders, and online survey and interviews with company sustainability leaders – to consider and critique the use of the carbon management hierarchy (CMH) by selected corporate bodies in the UK. The derived empirical evidence base enables a triangulated view of current performance and potential improvements. Currently, carbon management models are flawed, being vague in relation to the operational reductions required prior to offsetting and making no mention of Science Based Targets nor the role corporations could play in wider sustainability initiatives. An amended CMH is proposed incorporating wider sustainability initiatives, varying forms of offsets, the inclusion of accounting frameworks and an annual review mechanism to ensure progress towards carbon neutrality. If such a model were to be widely used, it would provide more rapid carbon emissions reductions and mitigation efforts, greater certainty in the authenticity of carbon offsets, wider sustainability impacts and a faster trajectory towards carbon neutrality.

This paper seeks to examine how the biodiversity comprising a tropical forest ecosystem is being protected as a result of having its conservation brought into financial accounting calculations by constructing a greenhouse gas emissions offset product to sell on the voluntary over‐the‐counter carbon markets.

The research examines a single embedded case study of a biodiversity conservation project in Kenya. The resulting discussion builds upon the existing accounting and organisation studies literature regarding the construction of markets.

Whilst the case examined does successfully bring tropical forest biodiversity conservation into the financial accounting calculations of the sellers and buyers of the offset product, via processes of objectification and singularisation, there are considerable accounting obstacles to constructing a calculative mechanism capable of achieving this on a global scale to facilitate financing of the conservation of all the world's remaining tropical forest biodiversity.

The paper contributes to the debate on accounting for biodiversity by examining market construction as a theoretical framework for turning the loss/conservation of biodiversity from an externality into an entity that is taken into account in organisations' calculations of profit and loss.

This paper aims to explore the area of carbon offsets and carbon neutrality within the context of hotels and resorts. In theory, carbon markets assist organizations in reducing their carbon footprint by purchasing carbon offsets. This conceptual paper aims to explore this market, analyze its operations and evaluate the participants. The expectation is that this original research will provide a foundation for analyzing this market to make sense of the widely disparate views about carbon neutrality held by companies in the hospitality sector.

The research study aimed to uncover what claims are currently made about carbon neutrality, what properties are making these claims and are these claims legitimate? A broad Internet search was conducted to collect a sample of hotels and resorts that marketed carbon neutrality as a feature of their properties. Next, a five-point Likert type scale was constructed to analyze every hotel and resort in terms of legitimate reflection of market performance challenges or dimensions. In this study, the hotels that claim to be “Carbon Neutral” were scored according to four market performance dimensions: project quality, carbon calculations, quality information of providers and price per ton of carbon offset.

The paper’s findings offer a twofold contribution. First, hotels and resorts interested in entering the offset market can use the results as strategic information to bolster efforts to achieve legitimacy and viability in this market. Second, the findings offer a benefit to consumers concerned to reduce their carbon footprint, as the results include a determination of the best hotels and resorts in terms of carbon neutrality.

This research found that the claim “carbon neutral” is used often to attract green consumers. The spectrum of claims ranged from hotels presenting comprehensive carbon management plans or online carbon footprint applications, to hotels that had minimal information and used the “carbon neutral” for marketing purposes only. In numerous cases, the claim of carbon neutrality is not substantiated and, in this case, might be construed as greenwashing.

The findings indicate that claims of carbon neutrality can be exaggerated and that the consumers must themselves be educated to be aware of claims that are unfounded.

Given the large and rising number of offset providers in the unregulated carbon offset industry and the hotel industry, this contribution promises to offer value. This study is one of the first formal analyses of carbon offsets in the hospitality market. The author hopes that this study will encourage others to research the growing market of voluntary carbon offsets further.

Numerous higher education institutions have created policies that aim to reduce their carbon footprints. Most policies focus on reducing greenhouse gas emissions related to energy production and consumption. One area that has received less attention has been greenhouse gas emissions from university air travel. The purpose of this paper is to understand how US higher education institutions address university air travel emissions.

The present research used qualitative document analysis to examine the climate policies of 44 doctoral institutions. The analysis sought to establish themes across a range of climate policy documents from the sampled institutions. Intercoder consensus, peer review and member checking were used to increase the reliability and validity of the analysis.

Five major themes emerged from the documents: no consideration of air travel, lack of quality data for accurate consideration, recommendations to offset air travel emissions, support for videoconferencing and other suggestions for mitigation. These themes are discussed in detail, as are practical suggestions and implications stemming from this and related research.

The research is based on a sample of US doctoral institutions and their public documents. It is therefore limited in its generalizability.

Institutions need to create a culture in which individual behavior changes toward lower travel are supported. Though problematic, institutions in the USA need to strive to implement suggested offset programs. Given the ubiquity of virtual presence, institutions need to further support videoconferencing.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this paper is among the first to examine how higher education institutions in the USA address air travel emissions.

This study aims to conduct a critical analysis of online carbon calculators, assesing their accuracy and ability to provide holistic carbon impact appraisals of different elements of holiday travel. It seeks to identify the major data sources for estimates and establish the interrelatedness between them. The determinant factors for the variance in the magnitude of the carbon footprint appraisals between calculators are critically reviewed.

The paper reviews the key online carbon calculators to better understand how estimates of carbon footprint are made, what background information is available to tool users and which factors affect the accuracy and comprehensiveness of appraisals.

The study concludes that the applicability of existing carbon calculators to carbon impact assessment in tourism is limited. Moreover, poor accesibility of the background data, inconsistencies in the multiplying factors used and inhomogeneity in the appraisal methods employed question the accuracy, credibility and transparency of carbon calculators. Suggestions are made on how to improve the overall quality and reliability of carbon calculators in order to enhance their consistency, transparency and applicability in the tourism domain.

The paper contributes to a better understanding of assessment approaches available in the tourism domain to produce reliable estimates of the carbon impacts from holiday travel.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an overarching conceptual decision model that delineates the major issues and decisions associated with carbon regulations that will allow executives to better understand the potential regulatory schemes and implications that may be imposed in the near future.

The authors use the extant literature as the foundation to develop a conceptual model of the decisions pertaining to climate change regulation that face business executives today.

This paper suggests four major categories of issues that must be addressed in any climate change regulatory scheme. These include: “scope” – will carbon emission management systems be global or regional; “who pays” – will the consumer or will the supply chain be responsible for the cost of their emissions; “market or compliance‐based mechanisms” – will the CO₂ emissions system be market‐based or a compliance‐based regulatory system; and “criteria” – how can credence of the remedy be established – what is necessary for a business initiative to qualify for as a creditable carbon offset?

This paper offers a framework that categories the fundamental decisions that must be made in any climate change regulation. This framework may be useful in advancing research into any of the four categories of decisions and their implications on commerce and the environment. This paper is designed to be managerially useful and in that way does limit its ability to specifically advance many dimensions of research.

The paper offers executives for a simple model of the decisions that must be made to craft an effective climate change regulatory scheme. In addition, it suggests how these decisions may create exploitable economic opportunities for innovative and proactive firms.

This paper adds value to the debate by clarifying the decisions that must be addressed in any climate change regulation scheme.

This study aims to investigate low-carbon footprint travel choices, considering both destination attributes and climate change perceptions, and examine the impacts of nudging (a communication tool to alter individuals’ choices in a predictable way) on tourists’ preferences for carbon mitigation in destinations.

A discrete choice experiment questionnaire was administered to a sample of 958 Hong Kong respondents. Hybrid choice modeling was used to examine the respondents’ preferences for destination attributes and to explain preference heterogeneity using tourists’ climate change perceptions. The respondents’ willingness to pay for the destination attributes was also calculated to measure the monetary value of the attributes.

Destination type, carbon emissions and travel cost had significant effects on tourists’ choices of destination. Nudging increased tourists’ preference for low-carbon footprint choices. Tourists with higher climate change perceptions were more likely than others to select low-carbon destinations with carbon offset projects.

The findings of this study provide an impetus for destination management organizations to support local carbon offset projects, implement policies that mitigate carbon emissions and develop sustainable tourism to fulfill tourists’ demand for low-carbon footprint travel choices. Based on the findings, policymakers could promote sustainable tourism by publishing relevant climate change information on social media.

This study addressed a gap in the literature on tourist travel choice by considering carbon emission-related attributes and climate change perceptions and by confirming the role of nudging in increasing the choice of low-carbon destinations.

The purpose of this study is to determine if blockchain-supported carbon offset information provision and shipping options with different cost and environmental footprint implications impact consumer perceptions toward retailers and logistics service providers. Blockchain and carbon neutrality, each can be expensive to adopt and complex to manage, thus getting the “truth” on decarbonization may require additional costs for consumers.

Experimental modeling is used to address these critical and emergent issues that influence practices across a set of supply chain actors. Three hypotheses relating to the relationship between blockchain-supported carbon offset information and consumer perceptions and intentions associated with the product and supply chain actors are investigated.

The results show that consumer confidence increases when supply chain carbon offset information has greater reliability, transparency and traceability as supported by blockchain technology. The authors also find that consumers who are provided visibility into various shipping options and the product's journey carbon emissions and offset – from a blockchain-supported system – they are more willing to pay a premium for both the product and shipping options. Blockchain-supported decarbonization information disclosure in the supply chain can lead to organizational legitimacy and financial gains in return.

Understanding consumer action and sustainable consumption is critical for organizations seeking carbon neutrality. Currently, the literature on this understanding from a consumer information provision is not well understood, especially with respect to blockchain-supported information transparency, visibility and reliability. Much of the blockchain literature focuses on the upstream. This study focuses more on consumer-level and downstream supply chain blockchain implications for organizations. The study provides a practical roadmap for considering levels of blockchain information activity and consumer interaction.