If you’ve come across the term ‘carbon neutral’ you’re not alone in wondering what it means. It’s a fairly new solution towards mitigating climate change by having a company work towards reducing its carbon emissions. “We believe that all companies must take responsibility for their supply chain,” says Isabella Todaro, the director of the carbon measurement program at Climate Neutral. The nonprofit leads a global movement to eliminate carbon emissions. Part of that involves companies being Climate Neutral Certified, a trusted, independent standard for climate neutrality.
As a consumer, navigating the world of sustainability and all of its terms can feel overwhelming. But it doesn’t have to be. From living wage to eco-friendly, there are a lot of phrases that everyone is talking about. While you might kind of know what some of these mean, it never hurts to break them down to fully understand them. Recently, when sustainable fashion brands began announcing that they were carbon neutral, it felt like there was another term to dismantle. But unlike terms like ‘sustainable’ or ‘eco-friendly’, which can feel vague, carbon neutral is fairly straightforward. It refers to the ways that a brand takes responsibility for CO2 emissions. And this article breaks it down to explain exactly how brands and customers like you and I can do that.
The Problem With Carbon
When brands mention that they’re carbon neutral it means that they’re focusing on reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) pollution. This greenhouse gas is one of the most prevalent and the most dangerous greenhouse gases because it can remain in the atmosphere for thousands of years. It is dumped into the atmosphere through activities like burning fossil fuels for materials like polyester or electricity. Transportation and even everyday activities like heating and cooling homes also result in CO2 emissions. Over the course of several years, the excess of these activities over the last 50 years has caused greenhouse gases like CO2 to be reported in the atmosphere at an all-time high.
CO2 traps and retains heat from the sun and Earth in the atmosphere which has led to climate change. While the planet’s climate is constantly changing and has undergone several cycles throughout its history, the changes over the last millennia are directly related to human activity. Temperatures have risen about 2 degrees Fahrenheit. The ocean has also warmed by 0.6 degrees. And, countries like Greenland have lost 279 billion tons of ice each year from 1993 to 2019.
How Are Brands Carbon Neutral?
Being carbon neutral isn’t about eliminating carbon emissions. The reality is that we are part of a global economy where raw materials are sourced and flown in, electricity keeps the lights on and machines running, and products are shipped to customers who live thousands of miles away. What carbon neutrality does achieve is balance.
It begins with an honest assessment. According to Isabella, “Companies should measure their carbon emissions immediately to get a sense for where their hotspots are and how they can begin to reduce their emissions.” As a rough model, imagine that a brand calculates that a product emits 100 lbs of carbon emissions from raw materials to the final product that its customer uses. This could be “a company that makes metal water bottles tells us exactly how much steel they purchased, how much energy was consumed during manufacturing, and how they ship their components and products,” Isabella explains.
To reach carbon neutrality, companies will look for ways to reduce carbon emissions – using renewable energy sources or shipping bulk packages instead of multiple small packages. This is called offsetting. “Because no company can reduce their emissions to zero today, we also require that Climate Neutral certified companies purchase eligible verified carbon credits to compensate for 100% of their cradle-to-customer emissions,” Isabella says. For instance, if a company produces 20 lbs of carbon emissions, then it might look towards investing in a company project that would offset carbon emissions by that amount. Planting a tree can reduce 48 lbs of CO2 per year. So, the brand might also invest in a nonprofit that plants one tree for every product sold.
Assessing, reducing, and offsetting are the steps a company must take to achieve the Climate Neutral seal. This third-party certification communicates to customers that a company has taken the necessary steps to become carbon neutral through credits. As Isabella explains, “Carbon credits are generated by projects that remove or avoid emissions elsewhere and are a great way to invest in climate solutions that exist today. “More often than not, companies will restructure some of their practices to reduce and offset carbon emissions to achieve the carbon neutral seal. Climate Neutral has set a global standard for over 20 years through its carbon-neutral program assessing where emissions are coming from to set targets to reduce and offset them.
Can Consumers Help Too?
Using the same model that companies use to reduce and offset their carbon emissions can play a role in helping us as consumers to do the same. Organizations like the Nature Conservatory offer carbon footprint calculators that you can use to see your approximate carbon footprint. These insightful tools can show you simple lifestyle changes you can make to reduce your carbon footprint and make you aware of how certain decisions impact the environment. Even simple buying decisions like shopping for reusable products or choosing organic cotton over polyester are ways to reduce your carbon footprint.
If you’re looking to offset your carbon emissions, you can follow the same format as some carbon-neutral brands and plant trees. It doesn’t have to be an exact science that uses an Excel sheet to offset your carbon emissions. Even volunteering within your city or town in reforestation or tree-planting projects can help to remove hundreds of pounds of CO2 from the atmosphere. Likewise, indulging in your tree planting projects within your home or backyard can reduce CO2 too.
At the end of the day, being carbon neutral is really about taking responsibility and creating balance. Brands and consumers have the opportunity to acknowledge how we impact the earth and find ways to minimize the negative while creating opportunities to enhance the positive impacts for the better today and tomorrow.
