Wednesday, September 25th, 2019 (9:43 am) - Score 1,157

ISP Cerberus Networks has today become the first UK internet provider to offer climate-neutral and climate-positive broadband services under their ‘Net Zero Broadband Carbon Offset‘ programme, which means that customers can automatically offset the carbon emissions associated with their service.

Essentially you sign-up to the broadband package you want (e.g. FTTC, FTTP, G.fast or ADSL2+) as per usual and can then optionally add the Broadband Carbon Offset Plan. Each month this plan will calculate your internet usage during the previous month and then send you a statement by email. The offset charge is then applied to your next broadband bill.

All offset charges then go directly and in full to ClimateCare to help pay for recognised and accredited Carbon Offset schemes. In addition, if you want to maximise the effect of your investment, then you have the option to offset 200% or 300% of you emissions associated with your usage, and if you do, Cerberus pledges to pay to double your offsets, so you can offset as much as 6 times your emissions.

The charges themselves are based around recent research, which calculated that the power consumption associated with internet traffic is 0.1kWh/GB and that the EU/USA average carbon intensity for electricity is around 0.5KgCO2/kWh.

Carbon Offset Plan Description Investment/100GB Traffic Carbon Impact Climate Neutral (Net Zero) We will offset 5kg of carbon for every 100GB of traffic you use. £0.40 + VAT 100% Offset (Neutral) Climate Positive We will offset 10kg of carbon for every 100GB of traffic that you use AND we will offset another 10kg at our cost. £0.80 + VAT 400% Offset

(300% Positive) Climate Champion We will offset 15kg of carbon for every 100GB of traffic that you use AND we will offset another 15kg at our cost. £1.20 + VAT 600% Offset

(500% Positive)

Bob Hendy, Director at Cerberus Networks, said: “We are really pleased to be working with ClimateCare, who are experts in the field, with over 20 years’ experience running some of the most innovative and largest carbon offset programmes in the world. Working with them has helped us understand how we can integrate action to tackle climate change into our business while also improving people’s lives. The reality of Internet usage is that, while Cerberus offsets all the emissions within our own operations and infrastructure, many of the carbon emissions associated with customer traffic originate outside of our network. Cerberus Net Zero Broadband allows customers to offset those external emissions and neutralise the impact of their traffic on the climate. And if customers want to make a positive contribution, then we want to demonstrate our support by matching their input.”

Admittedly the practice of carbon offsetting does have its detractors and is no substitute for effective action by Governments, although in the meantime this is certainly one of the most interesting approaches to doing it that we’ve seen so far. Whether or not Cerberus will attract much take-up is another matter, not least since most consumers tend to be very price conscious.

As hinted above, Cerberus have also recently invested in a series of internal initiatives to minimise all emissions associated with the business (this spans from an investment in new high-efficiency servers, storage and network infrastructure to providing free rapid charging for EVs at their Greenford premises or running an all-electric company car programme).

Mind you Cerberus isn’t the first provider to adopt a direct green initiative for their customers. Another provider, called GreenISP, has an offset policy for itself and also plants a tree for every new broadband and web hosting customer.