More and more organizations are compensating the greenhouse gas emissions caused by their products and services through carbon offset programs. From the customers’ perspective, the mitigation of negative externalities associated with their demand may increase the utility derived from the (then guilt-free) consumption. In particular in settings where consumers do not pay for the marginal cost of consumption, this may lead to higher levels of resource use. This article empirically examines how the announcement of an organizational carbon offset program affects consumption in a CO₂-intensive everyday activity (showering). We further evaluate the provision of real-time feedback as a strategy to counteract potential increases in consumption. For this purpose, we conducted an eight-week randomized controlled natural field experiment in a German youth hostel (full 2 × 2 factorial design; N = 9,999 observations). Consumption in the group with the offset program was statistically significantly higher than in the control group (by 5.4 to 15.5%). However, participants who additionally received real-time feedback on their consumption did not increase their resource use compared to the control group. While the results suggest that carbon offset programs may increase resource use, the findings provide evidence that organizations can counteract these adverse effects by making the individual’s resource use salient.

越来越多的组织通过碳补偿计划来补偿其产品和服务所造成的温室气体排放。从客户的角度来看，减轻与他们的需求相关的负面外部性可能会增加源自（然后无罪）消费的效用。特别是在消费者不支付边际消费成本的环境中，这可能导致更高水平的资源使用。本文从经验上考察了组织碳补偿计划的宣布如何影响CO _2的消耗密集的日常活动（淋浴）。我们进一步评估了实时反馈的提供，以此来抵消潜在的消费增长。为此，我们在德国一家青年旅馆中进行了为期八周的随机受控自然场实验（完整2×2因子设计； N = 9,999个观测值）。补偿计划组的消费量在统计学上显着高于对照组（5.4到15.5％）。但是，与对照组相比，还额外收到其消费量实时反馈的参与者并未增加其资源使用量。尽管结果表明碳补偿计划可能会增加资源利用，但这些发现提供了证据，表明组织可以通过突出个人的资源利用来抵消这些不利影响。