With voluntary carbon markets, it’s still buyer beware

IN 2012, before it became trendy for companies to make “net-zero” or “carbon-neutral” promises, Jebsen & Jessen Group was already buying carbon credits to voluntarily offset its carbon footprint.

The Singapore-based industrial group’s chairman, Heinrich Jessen, a biologist by training, had championed it as an extension of the family enterprise’s long-running efforts to cut the business’ impact on the environment to a minimum.