Is Carbonfree ‘ Doing the right thing?’

Corporate Risk Systems has been Carbon Free Since 2005,  but is it right? a recent article from IEMA’S environmentalist magazine debates for the affirmative? - A growing number of FTSE 100 companies are making commitments to be carbon neutral – six have already done so and at least 20 more are on their way. They are achieving it through a combination of their own carbon reductions and robust offsets. The reality is that very few businesses can achieve carbon neutrality by reducing their own emissions to zero, even with the best renewable technologies and supply-chain efforts deployed. Offsets offer a pragmatic and rapid way to achieve neutrality across individual products or services or even whole organisations. But offsets are not simply about achieving neutrality, they are an integral part of carbon management. Long gone are the days of firms simply offsetting their emissions alongside their guilt.
Offsetting must be used only as part of an organisation’s overall carbon strategy, which involves a cyclical process of robust carbon footprint assessment and reduction targets. Offsets are then used to remove the firm’s residual carbon footprint, which should be diminishing year by year.
While critics question the quality of offsets, the reality of the situation is that the market is highly regulated. Rigorous international standards, such as the verified carbon standard and the certified emission reduction scheme, provide businesses and consumers with assurance that the savings being made are new, permanent and measurable. Aside from the obvious carbon savings made through offsets, the approach can have other, more broadly positive impacts. Investing in offsets often helps firms to place a value on carbon.
For example, many organisations employ internal schemes that charge back the cost of offsetting to the emitting function, putting a tangible value on CO₂. Forward-thinking firms use this as a means of engaging staff with the true costs of their choices and to instigate behavioural change. Some companies also visit their offsetting projects and get involved with them, which further helps staff buy-in.
Furthermore, offset projects often have strong socioeconomic dimensions, with many helping communities in developing nations – supporting renewable energy or avoiding deforestation, for example. These projects would not have been possible, nor the positive outcomes achieved, without the creation and sale of carbon credits to fund them. Corporate Risk Systems can support your organisation to calculate, reduce or offset it’s Carbon Footprint – contact us for more information.