Do carbon neutral declarations by big brands mean anything?
The UK’s The Guardian is asking Do carbon neutral declarations by big brands mean anything?.
Earlier this month Alpro Soya announced plans to become the first food manufacturer in the UK to make the commitment to become completely carbon neutral. All stirring stuff, except the Belgian health drink company could not put a date on it and in fact had not yet even calculated its emissions.
We recognised this problem quite a while ago and avoid the term “carbon neutral” partly because, for one, it’s a trademark of The Carbon Neutral Company in the UK, but largely because it’s a term almost devoid of genuine meaning. As the Guardian article points out there are plenty of organisations claiming carbon neutrality without even having measured their carbon footprints at all.
Carbon Planet has established its CO2 free™ trademark with very strict rules. The rules are simple:
- Measure
- You must have had your carbon emissions audited to international standards by a properly accredited body
- Reduce
- You must have made genuine commitments to reducing your emissions through behavioural and structural changes
- Offset
- You must offset the emissions you cannot reduce through formally accredited carbon credit programmes
Note there is nothing in these rules that says you have to have been audited and offset by Carbon Planet, only that the audit you have done, and the credits you use to offset must be formally accredited and conform to the same high standards as our services.
As a responsible carbon emissions reduction company, Carbon Planet employs a global team of engineers and scientists focussed primarily on producing carbon emissions audits that conform to the GHG Protocol Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standards. For manufacturers we can go well beyond this standard, with complete life-cycle analysis audits. To my knowledge we are the only carbon emissions reduction specialists in the world certified with these capabilities. The audits we produce exceed these standards as they come complete with tailored carbon emissions reduction strategies. The carbon credits we provide come from either forestry or carbon savings NGAC schemes. We also have a pool of Gold Standard credits available for clients that take issue with forestry or other schemes.
Beyond that Carbon Planet functions as a primary broker of carbon credits and is able to source any kind of credits your business might require. Because we operate globally we have an incredible reach into projects that smaller offset companies simply do not have. Carbon Planet is also the only carbon credit retailer that actually goes to the trouble of transferring legal ownership of the credits we sell. As a customer you need to know that the credits you have paid for have not been on-sold to other people as well. The simplest way to assure this is via the use of an independent registry. We set up your account in this registry for you and transfer the credits to your account. You get issued with a username and password for that registry and can verify your ownership of any NGAC credits we sell you.
A couple of our clients have put their CO2 free™ emissions audits online. See for example
- Foof’s 2006 Audit, and commentary.
- Deadline Media’s 2007 Audit, and commentary.
We believe that by offering a transparent product, and a simple, verifiable process for eliminating a business’s, event’s or any kind of project’s greenhouse gas impacts, and by offering a clean, branded label with genuine meaning and a legal contract to back it up, Carbon Planet is leading the way with respect to genuine carbon neutrality.
If your business wants to “go carbon neutral” ask your provider
- Do you do carbon emissions auditing?
- Do you make emissions reduction recommendations?
- Do your offset schemes use certified carbon credits and do those credits become the property of the customer?
If the answer to any of those questions is “no” then think carefully about whether you are really spending your money wisely. The last thing a business needs is for its good green intentions to blow up in its face. People are starting to see through green-washing schemes, don’t let your business be caught out. — DS
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