4 May 2011 | Luca Del Buono
Carbon, Climate Change, Energy

 

After measuring your company’s carbon footprint it can be certified by a third party. Planet Positive, one of Climate Action’s strategic partners, is a certification expert that offers a well-respected mark. Here they explain why your business should certify its green credentials and what you have to do achieve it.

By reducing your company’s impact on the environment you could save your business money while saving the planet. Through carbon footprinting an organisation can assess its incomings and outgoings in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, it can then take steps to reduce these and in turn save money by reducing energy costs, making your business more efficient and improving staff morale.

To gain maximum value from your hard work in measuring and reducing your carbon footprint, you can certify it. In this guide, we examine the values of certifying your business as green and shows you how to do it. Some companies choose to measure their footprints themselves and get certification from third parties such as The Carbon Trust, others bring in companies that will calculate your carbon footprint, help you reduce it and monitor progress on an annual basis.

Benefits of certifying your business

Save Money through Energy Efficiencies
In achieving guideline reductions of 5% each year, even a modestly-sized company could make significant savings in both carbon and costs over the course of a few years.

Marketing and Brand Differentiation
Becoming certified provides you with a highly distinctive communicator of your environmental achievement. It also signifies that you have gone beyond compliance to have a positive impact on the environment, which can greatly improve public perception and influence consumer choice.

Winning new Business
Being green is no longer an option. If you want competitor advantage, then the bid with the sustainability accreditation wins. Certification provides 3rd party assurance and proof of your positive action on the environment.

Behaviour Change - Engage and Enthuse Employees
Through environmental certification you can help your business achieve their reduction targets by engaging and inspiring their employees, shareholders and customers through a mixture of behaviour change programs.

How to certify your business

Planet Positive suggests four steps to certification:

1. Find a certification company backed by a protocol continuously assessed through a panel of independent academic experts. Your certification company will undertake a comprehensive carbon footprint measurement in accordance with the Greenhouse Gas Protocol. In year 1. This will involve measuring Scope 1 and 2 emissions (building heating and electricity and company fleet emissions), and encourage Scope 3 (paper, waste and business travel) emissions. Scope 3 is required in the second year of certification.

2. Your business will be set targets to reduce their carbon emissions year on year. Planet Positive provides clients with a Carbon Action Plan with methods to reduce business carbon footprints that are both easily instigated and cost neutral. Other more expensive options with high impacts are also suggested.

3. Part of your certification license fee may be used for sustainability projects through which you can take action to promote and support sustainability and local or international communities.

4. You will receive a certification mark as proof of your action to reduce your business carbon footprint. This will facilitate marketing your green credentials to your employees, partners, suppliers and clients or customers. You should position your certificate and report in the public domain for scrutiny and to avoid greenwash.

 

Verify existing carbon footprints

For businesses that already have a carbon footprint measurement and who are interested in certification, your certification company should be able to verify the original data and calculation methodology and check that you are on the right track.

You will need to:

• Provide energy data, i.e. Heating, Electricity and Vehicle information (from bills) are taken from a minimum time period of 10 months. Your certification company will validate the energy data.
• To take meter readings to avoid estimated bills, and track data on business travel and paper and waste usage

Your company’s reductions and progress will be measured by carrying out a carbon footprint of your business year on year to assess if it has met its reduction targets. If they have not met the targets the certification company reserve the right to withdraw certification, and remove the logo from the clients marketing materials.

Reducing your carbon footprint will save your company money and certifying it will add credibility to what you have achieved. Once certified the footprint is a valuable marketing tool that improves your company’s reputation in the marketplace and among your staff. As well as an organisational footprint, the company may now choose to calculate and certify the footprints of some of its products.

Image 01 | Be Planet Positive

Image 02 | BGN Entrepreneur

Image 03 | Tree Hugger

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