Carbon offsets, sustainability and regenerative development: Stanley Lee / The Edge Malaysia
17 Aug 2023. This article first appeared in Forum, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on August 14, 2023 - August 20, 2023.

When discussing efforts to address climate change, a foremost point to consider is that carbon offsets and carbon markets are basically a platform to invest in secondary actions to reduce carbon emissions in a bid to counteract primary emissions. The problem with carbon offsets is that they only contribute partially to the current climate solutions. Such initiatives, however, have their limitations for they do not promote the desired overall outcome in the decarbonisation of every sector, and could serve as a tool for further exploitation of the climate crisis. For the record, a report published by Bloomberg last year reveals that about 40% of offsets purchased came from renewable energy projects that did not actually reduce emissions. Despite these weaknesses, it does offer some relief like providing support to needy, proven decarbonising projects that lack funding, provided the funds are distributed transparently and fairly.

The thrust of sustainable development programmes is focused on the built environment and designed for extended term environmental benefits and simultaneously to enhance socioeconomic outcomes. The main criteria are the reduction of environmental impact, improvement of the quality of life and the preservation of our natural resources and habitat. Regenerative development, on the other hand, encompasses the integration of sustainability principles while taking into consideration the restoration of ecosystems to an optimum condition, rather than the practice of merely neutralising adverse effects to the ecosystem and minimising the impacts of environmental degradation. By integrating sustainability and regenerative efforts, we create an ideal natural process that can restore the natural environment and that will eventually improve and enhance the well-being of communities as well as the health of our planet.

From this perspective, we need to relook at the process of recycling. It should only be undertaken after all other available processes like reuse, remodelling and refurbishment are exhausted as the recycling process is tedious and requires substantial energy to perform. To enable this shift, it is necessary to utilise the “design for disassembly” methodology as it is probably the only way to address the shortcomings of current sustainability practices. In doing so, we set the stage to introduce circularity into our entire economy. This approach can also help to address income inequality in society. How is this possible? To comprehend the scope of such initiatives, we need to examine the chain reaction of the circularity process. When the total industrial supply is covered by the services industry to involve the utilisation of reused goods, the demand for raw resources and energy consumption simultaneously reduces altogether in the manufacturing of new products.

By and large, when the consumption of resources and energy in industrial application lessens, greenhouse gas emissions are naturally reduced. As the reuse industry sector expands, it creates demand for a highly skilled workforce that has the necessary skill sets. In this process, part of the income from the manufacturer is shifted towards the latter and the increase of income for the reuse industry expands, resulting in the lessening of income inequality. The field of sustainable development is wide if we take into consideration other affiliated subject matters. Apart from the academic skills that are in place, the knowledge of industrial processing, material systems and product design are necessary for sustainability professionals to make the necessary changes for decarbonising the affected sectors to meet sustainable development criteria. Basically, we cannot achieve the intended results based only on administrative actions. It must be accompanied with technical adaptation. Changes to industrial processes must be made, otherwise the effectiveness of sustainability efforts would remain to be seen. As material systems also play a crucial part in this development, it is necessary to acknowledge that not all so-called green products are sustainable, but all sustainable products, if rigorously defined, are usually green. Therefore, it is mandatory to look at this in a broader context to precisely design ideal solutions to achieve the sustainable development goals and mitigate the climate crisis.