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How to become a carbon neutral organisation |
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To help meet its environmental goals, a company or organisation may choose to become carbon neutral - by finding ways to offset or compensate for their carbon emissions. The best way to undertake this complex job is to get someone else to do it for you. First calculate your carbon footprintIn the context of carbon offsets, vague terms such as "Climate Friendly" are not appropriate. Any carbon neutral initiative needs to be based on an accurate assessment of a company's greenhouse gas emissions. Some companies monitor and keep accurate internal records of emissions, others may require assistance with the assessment of their emissions. This will help them account for their 'carbon footprint' - the impact of their activities expresed in terms of carbon emissions. If you need help with this, then do point your mouse to http://www.bestfootforward.com/carbonacc.html. Or (see later) you can get someone else to do it for you. ForestryForests play an important role in the global carbon cycle, and so planting trees is an important part of most carbon neutral or offsetting activities. About 60 GtC is exchanged between terrestrial ecosystems and the atmosphere each year, of which forests account for around 80%. During the 1980s emissions due to deforestation were estimated at 1.6 GtC/yr (±1.0). Because forestry activities can both generate and remove greenhouse gases, forestry is a central issue in the Kyoto Protocol. Future Forests is one organisation which helps companies offset their carbon emissions. It works with the Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Management [ECCM] on its forestry projects. This is a lead agency for sequestration (locking up atmospheric carbon that would otherwise contribute to the greenhouse effect) and co-author of the International Panel for Climate Change report on sequestration. They recommend the following requirements for credible forestry carbon offset projects:
With the ECCM, Future Forests works out the amount of forest cover necessary to offset a particular level of carbon dioxide, and then puts in place a monitoring and verification service. This is a 'gold standard' in forestry offset to support the carbon neutral mark. That means the programmes have multi-level sustainability benefits, judged against a set of criteria including:
Case studiesYou can make anything [and everything] carbon neutral - events, products, travel, facilities, processes, and Future Forests has worked with many companies to do this. For example, auto manfufacturer Mazda began with Future Forests by launching carbon neutral driving alongside its new Demio car (planted 5 trees per car purchased) - no car company had associated with carbon dioxide output so directly. Future Forests worked on the communications plan, being careful not to position trees as a panacea or 'guilt free' ride but rather part of Mazda's overall approach to carbon management. So pleased was Mazda with the result that the management has since made the operation carbon neutral, taken other brands carbon neutral and made the Motor Show 1998 carbon neutral. The UK operation of Avis, the car hire company, is also carbon neutral - all sites including Head Office planted one tree per car in the Avis fleet. They made their AGM carbon neutral and 'neutralised' the electricity used for the 2000 Motor Show. Brighton and Hove go c-level16 organisations in Brighton and Hove are becoming Climate Balanced by working with local consultants C LEVEL. They will come to understand the scale of their CO2 emissions, make changes to reduce them and undertake an afforestation programme to compensate for them. Called C CITY, it is backed by Brighton and Hove City Council, as it complements its own recently adopted sustainability targets. The council is researching its own Carbon Footprint to measure its impact on global warming, is switching to renewable power, and is identifying opportunities for Climate Balancing within its own estate. Going furtherBut there is a body of opinion which says just planting trees is not enough. Climate Care is another company which helps other businesses become carbon neutral. It is approved for example by WWF and the Environmental Transport Association, a 'green' version of the AA or RAC, as a way for companies which rely on fossil-fueled transport to offset their impact. They believe that while it may provide an attractive mental image to link specific trees directly to an activity's emissions, trees die, and then re-emit CO2, so they don't do anything on their own. To get an idea of the limitations of forestry, imagine trying to soak up all the UK's emissions for just one year by creating a new forest. To do this we would have to cover all of Devon and Cornwall with trees, and look after them for ever. The following year a similar area would have to be forested. There simply isn't enough room to do this. In the long term we need to leave the fossil fuels in the ground and to develop renewables. Deforestation does create some of the greenhouse effect - perhaps around 20%. Some forestry projects have massive benefits over and above saving the climate - they restore the natural environment, offer homes to wildlife and can help protect land from being eroded. In recognition of this Climate Care will support some forestry projects, but in a way that is consistent with the best agreed principles for saving the climate, and only for a proportion of their activity. How it worksLike Future Forests, Climate Care takes the global warming out of the things that companies do by asking people who buy products that cause global warming to pay a tiny bit extra. This is used to fund projects that reduce global warming, such as renewable energy, energy efficiency or forest restoration. The reductions equal the emissions. A table shows what it costs to take the global warming out of some basic polluting activities:
ProjectsClimate Care's activities are overseen by an Environmental Steering Committee which includes key environmental figures and organisations like WWF. In addition to CO2 savings, each project is chosen because it provides additional benefits to the local area. Climate Care has been contributing to the restoration of the Kibale National Park in Uganda. This project aims to recreate the natural forest area that suffered deforestation in the 1970s and 80s. The Park also has one of the highest concentrations of primate species in the world with 13 different species, including chimpanzees. In Mauritius, a small island state in the Indian Ocean particularly at risk from climate change, up to 90% of the island's electricity is generated from diesel - in CO2 terms it is relatively dirty. Climate Care is working with the government of Mauritius to distribute energy efficient light bulbs to small businesses and individuals on the island. Each light bulb will save up to half a tonne of CO2 over its life. A further project involves working to utilise willow as an energy crop to supply schools, public buildings and offices in the UK. Willow is grown under a system called 'short rotation coppice'. By installing biomass boilers to replace those that run on fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas we can make real reductions in CO2 emissions and lay the foundations of a market, so that wider reductions can be made in the future. Case studiesClimate Care has a growing number of clients including companies and private individuals. For example, the Design Council, which promotes the effective use of design, contracts Climate Care to offset the CO2 emissions arising from its energy use and travel. Tour company Discovery Initiatives takes care to make its tours environmentally and socially responsible and was the first travel operator in the UK to offer its customers the option of Climate Care on its holidays. Since the launch of its brochure of tours for 2000, Discovery Initiatives has also been offsetting the greenhouse gas emissions from all the air travel in its tours. For every journey made, it pays Climate Care a small fee to put towards investing in alternative technologies and renewable energy projects across the globe. Trident Manufacturing Ltd import and distribute both domestic and commercial lighting systems in the UK. Trident is keen to minimise its impact on the environment and so has undergone the ISO 14001 environmental management certification, and developed policies to reduce its contribution to global warming, specifically, cutting its own CO2 emissions. It has contracted Climate Care to offset the entire CO2 impact arising from its UK operations and from the shipment of its lights from China to the UK. More info:
Last updated: 18.09.05
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