Say you're a business person who's read all about what the private sector can do to promote a sustainable future. You're intrigued, and you want to help your company understand and act. You know that it's about more than changing the lights, carpooling, and recycling paper waste. And you've come upon the big idea...let's be carbon neutral!
OK so far. But as you dig deeper, you realize that your good intentions could all go awry before you even get started. You've discovered that there are as many interpretations of just what being carbon neutral is as there are business cases to look at.
Thankfully, along comes the guidance of two organizations who've been doing a lot of thinking about just this issue. Clean Air -- Cool Planet and Forum for the Future, U.S. and U.K. based non-profits, respectively, have just published Getting to Zero: Defining Corporate Carbon Neutrality (download PDF here). They steer clear of the hype and offer most reasoned and realistic guidance. Theirs is a step-wise approach, more likely to resonate with your colleagues during the critical first phase of any carbon neutral initiative--defining it strategically, and with vision and clarity.
Though I can't promise you'll see fireworks, your eConsciousness will sparkle just a little more brightly, I'm sure. Good reading.
It's great that Clean Air Cool Planet and Forum For The Future are showing how offsets can be a key aspect of a credible carbon reduction strategy.
As well as shrinking their own carbon footprint, customers should ensure the purchased offsets are reducing emissions by the advertised amount.
Looking at the market, it appears that the more robust the offset product, the fewer co-benefits there are. For example, planted trees or new efficient stoves have development co-benefits, yet the emissions reductions are notoriously difficult to measure.
Posted by: Fynnwin Prager, Carbon Retirement | July 02, 2008 at 05:00 AM
FP:
Your point are well taken. Buyer beware--buyer be informed. I've addressed some of the issues of our evolving carbon offset approaches in my posts on The ABCs of Carbon Offsets (http://www.theunlikelyactivist.com/2007/01/the_abcs_of_car.html) and Carbon Offsets: Point/Counterpoint (http://www.theunlikelyactivist.com/2007/02/carbon_offsets_.html).
So what is Carbon Retirement about? Tell us more...
LG
Posted by: LG | July 02, 2008 at 08:53 AM