Climate Neutral Certification – Is It For Your Organization?

Tomorrow is Earth Day. Unlike past Earth Days, this one will be celebrated remotely as we are in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and the large majority of us are practicing shelter in place. 

Even though the climate change and single use plastics (can you say plastic gloves?) discussions have been tabled to focus on this more immediate threat, it is important to remember that climate change is still here.  Even though it is not as visually present in our daily lives – yet– we need to continue addressing it. 

Businesses and non-profits play a major role in the discussion and can either support carbon reduction strategies that help mitigate climate change, or ignore them and contribute to climate change by default. As I have noted in the past, environmental sustainability and going green offer organizations many benefits, such as identifying operational efficiencies, attracting new customers, and cash flow generation.

While smaller businesses have been slower to adopt going green practices compared to the larger companies, there are some smaller businesses that are quite advanced and have incorporated going green and environmental sustainability as part of their operations, culture and overall business strategy. 

Then there are the businesses that have taken an action here and there but have not completely adopted environmental sustainability and going green.  For those businesses, one of the steps to consider is calculating their carbon footprint. Once the footprint is determined, they can take actions to reduce their emissions, and between reductions and carbon offsets, become carbon neutral. 

If this sounds like your organization, you might be thinking - yes, great idea, but carbon footprinting is an advanced technique and we don’t have the time or resources - not to mention the expertise - to do it.

Indeed, calculating a carbon footprint can be a daunting task. There are some free carbon foot printing tools out there, and there are also companies that have developed software to help organizations do this. Most of the time, however, this involves at least one or two person’s time and as well as a budget to pay for the tool, two things that most small businesses do not have. 

Enter Climate Neutral. Climate Neutral is a 501(c)(3) that was started in early 2019 to solve this problem. Climate Neutral’s goal is to make carbon footprint measurement and reduction straightforward for large and small businesses alike, and to recognize companies that are taking action via a certification.  

Other organizations have tried to do this in the past, but as mentioned above, carbon footprinting can be complicated and confusing, and so there weren’t too many takers. Climate Neutral aims to change this, and it already has 110+ companies that have signed up and become certified, which is promising.

Climate Neutral’s mantra is "Measure, reduce, offset, and label." They developed a streamlined carbon footprinting calculator to make carbon benchmarking and tracking straight-forward, even for smaller businesses. Once a company has determined its baseline, it commits to taking at least two actions to reduce its carbon footprint. Any remaining emissions can be addressed by purchasing carbon offsets. 

On Climate Neutral’s list of companies that have committed, there are some 60+ bigger brands, but there is also a list of ‘Small Brands & Start-ups’, which included about 75 companies at the time of this writing. This is a a great sign for other smaller businesses looking to take this sustainability step. 

So if this is something that your organization is considering doing, definitely check out Carbon Neutral. And note - it is important to reduce carbon emissions as much as possible then to purchase carbon offsets. Just purchasing carbon offsets and taking one or two actions may sound great for PR purposes, but it will be considered greenwashing by the large majority of customers and consumers. and will backfire.

If you are looking to help your organization go green and have just started or have taken a few steps and would like more no-cost or low-cost project ideas, be sure to download our free Beginner’s Guide to Going Green. 

N.B. Eco-Coach is not affiliated with Carbon Neutral in any way.