An Eco-Positive Boost by Going Carbon-Negative

Some industries can generate quantities of carbon emissions in proportion to their sizes or production demand. Presently, many are choosing to lower their carbon footprints by seeking carbon credits to offset these emissions. With these credits, they can drastically minimize — or even achieve net-zero — emissions, meaning that the number of carbon credits they utilize would consistently negate these emissions.

Suppose we were to visualize this as a simple balance scale, with one side representing emissions and the other side representing offsets. In that case, the emissions side’s appearance is always weighted down first until the offsets revert the scales to their original positions. This is a promising scenario where the responsible industry wouldn’t be — directly or indirectly — burdened with an already-worrying rise of greenhouse gases. However, it doesn’t change anything realistically. Each instance of tipping the metaphorical scale in favor of emissions to revert them practically means getting back to square one — especially when the actual goal here is to remove greenhouse gases from the air permanently.

This brings us to the concept of going carbon-negative, where more carbon is quantifiably offset than emitted, tipping the scales in favor of the other side for once. It is also sometimes plausible that industries or companies…