The Carbon Trust Standard – Measuring carbon reduction
This is one of a series of short articles that highlight environmental standards and measures organisations can use to raise their level of sustainability. And one of the most effective ways to secure measurable improvements is in the area of carbon emissions.
What is the Standard?
The Carbon Trust Standard was set up in 2007/08 and according to its website is “widely considered as the world’s leading certifier of organisational carbon footprint reduction”. The Standard recognises a commitment to measuring, managing and reducing carbon emissions. Key areas measured are:
- Carbon footprint
- Carbon management
- Carbon reduction
According to a recent announcement businesses certified to the Carbon Trust Standard now account for over 50% of the total UK retail market.
The Standard builds on existing standards for the measurement of corporate carbon emissions:
- Greenhouse Gas Protocol Corporate Standard from the World Resources Institute (WRI) and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD).
- ISO14064-1 :2006, which provides a specification (at the organization level) for quantification and reporting of greenhouse gas emissions and removals.
What is the Carbon Trust?
The Carbon Trust is a not-for-dividend company set up by the UK government in 2001 to help organisations reduce their carbon dioxide emissions. Its mission is to facilitate the move to a low carbon economy.
Why reduce your carbon emissions?
The primary purpose of reducing carbon emissions is to counter the effects of man-made global warming, which include dramatic and unpredictable weather events, such as hurricanes, floods and heat waves, major changes in agricultural practices causing widespread crop failure and severe water shortages in many parts of the world. Because of the social and economic effects of climate change, many governments have committed themselves to reducing their countries’ carbon emissions.
This is itself may be enough for an organisation to want to reduce its carbon emissions. But there are also good commercial reasons. For example, the Carbon Trust Standard can be a great team-builder – and a way to stand out from the crowd – as it shows you don’t just care about these issues but are actually doing something about them. And of course you are trendy enough to know what the big issues of the day are.
Public image is one thing, but also a move away from carbon-emitting technology is a move towards greener technology, and that is the future. Endorsing these technologies will not only encourage its development by others, but may in the long-term be cost-saving as governments impose higher and higher penalties on high-carbon technologies in an effort to meet their carbon reduction targets, and offer sweeteners such as grants and subsidies to encourage adoption of green technology.
Why the Standard?
As with any goal, measurement is critical to success when assessing environmental or sustainability goals. The Standard was set up to counter “greenwash” – organisations talking up their green credentials without the facts to back them up.
Who has it? Who runs it?
At least six hundred organisations carry the Standard, ranging from large multinationals such as Marks & Spencer plc, Asda and B&Q to several one-person operations.
Smaller organisations such as SME Environ UK have found the certification process to be a great team-builder, in addition to more tangible benefits such as mitigating continuously rising energy costs. Their clients have also reacted very favourably to their attaining the Standard, giving them a valuable competitive advantage.
Then there’s the Carbon Label …
Also of interest is the Carbon Label, which is related to individual products rather than organisations and has been adopted in the UK by companies including Dyson, Marks & Spencer, Walker’s Crisps and Tesco. This is also measurement-based and can be placed on products that are taking steps to reduce their carbon footprint.
The certifications are based on two global product carbon footprinting standards, PAS 2050 and the WRI/WBCSD Greenhouse Gas Protocol Product Standard described above.
So what is PAS 2050?
PAS is a publicly available specification for the assessment of the life cycle greenhouse gas emissions of goods and services. The standards document is published by the British Standards Institution.
Resources:
Wikipaedia entry on The Carbon Trust: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Carbon_Trust
The Carbon Trust Standard website: http://www.carbontruststandard.com
The Carbon Label website: http://www.carbon-label.com
British Standards Institution: http://www.bsigroup.com
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