It is difficult to avoid the publicity from online dictionaries about their word of the year. The outcome is heavily influenced by social media posts and celebrity utterances, hence the choice of words that many of us are unlikely to ever use. Try working 2024’s winners, ‘brain rot’, ‘manifest’ or ‘brat’ into a sensible conversation. Instead, I predict that the sustainability community will be talking about ‘insetting’ a lot more in 2025. The term is used to describe actions taken by an organisation to fight climate change within its own supply chain. The concept was first described ten years ago but has never really gained traction, possibly because it was centred around tree planting and other nature based solutions, which are hard to verify. The word is ripe for repurposing.
The pressure on companies to reduce the climate impact of their products and processes is ramping up as more ESG related disclosure is required, particularly in Europe. Unilever announced in September 2024 that it is now focussed on reducing emissions within its supply chain. The company declared that it is working with key suppliers to reduce the product carbon footprint of raw materials, ingredients and packaging which made up over 60% of the company’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in 2023. Unilever is trying to reduce its Scope 3 emissions. Insetting would be easier to understand.
Words are becoming even more important as companies worry about accusations of ‘greenwashing’. ‘Offsetting’, for example, has attracted negative connotations. The term is usually associated with emissions savings projects that have no connection with the emitting sites. Insetting should be more trusted by consumers, because its application is much more prescribed. It only applies to the upstream or downstream value chain in which the emitting site is situated. So, for example, a site producing the raw materials for packaging such as polymers or aluminium has upstream suppliers providing the oil or bauxite derived raw materials and a downstream chain via companies that produce bottles or cans to a consumer brand owner who sells the final packaged product to the public.
The process of insetting must involve collaboration along this chain of suppliers, processors, and brand owners to compensate for the emissions of all members. This cooperation will cover the acquisition of credits or certificates from operators who are investing in new technology to bury carbon dioxide at geological storage sites or provide renewable energy such as biogas or hydroelectricity. The whole supply chain should be open to external audit because key to public trust will be the independent verification of emissions reductions and compensations. Savings must be audited and linked to emissions. So, for example, renewable electricity certificates shall only be used to compensate for the emissions caused by fossil generated electricity.
NGOs, journalists and other opinion formers are continuously scrutinising the methods that companies employ to reduce the carbon footprint of their products. So, transparency in the external compensation for emissions will be important. And if the purchase and retirement of credits and certificates is independently audited, the public will be much more likely to accept them.
There is an organisation dedicated to insetting. The International Platform for Insetting (IPI), founded in 2015 and based in Paris, focuses on nature based solutions, for companies with agricultural supply chains. Accor, Nespresso and Chanel are founding members. There is also an Insetting Programme Standard. Unfortunately, the solutions to saving carbon which rely on nature are the hardest to quantify and verify, which has led to a loss of trust in these types of credits. The IPI needs to publicise the benefits of quantifiable types of carbon reductions.
So how can we be judge whether the concept is gaining traction in 2025? Internet search terms are an accessible way of analysing what is on the population’s mind. ‘Insetting’ barely figured at all in searches until 2023-24, when it started to appear occasionally. So, let’s give the last word to Google and see what the data says at the end of 2025.
Published: 16 January 25
