With the European Climate Law, the EU have committed to carbon neutrality by 2050.
Climate change is affecting the world in many ways with extreme weather conditions; heavy rain, flooding, heat waves and landslides all becoming more common.
In order to limit the effects of global warming to 1.5°C – a threshold the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) suggest is safe – carbon neutrality by mid-21st century is essential. This has been signed by 195 countries in the Paris agreement.
In December 2019, the European Commission presented the European Green Deal, its flagship plan that aims to make Europe climate neutral by 2050. This target will be reached through the European Climate Law that sets climate neutrality into binding EU legislation.
With so many buzz-words around the topic; let’s first define what each one means:
- Carbon Neutral - means that any CO2 released into the atmosphere from a company’s activities is balanced by an equivalent amount being removed.
- Climate Positive – means that any activity goes beyond achieving net-zero carbon emissions to create an environmental benefit by removing additional carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
- Carbon Negative – means the same thing as ‘climate positive’
- Carbon Positive – is how organisations describe climate positive and carbon negative. It’s mainly a marketing term, and understandably confusing.
- Climate Neutral - refers to reducing all Greenhouse Gases (GHG) to the point of zero while eliminating all other negative environmental impacts that an organisation may cause.
- Net-Zero Carbon Emissions - means that an activity releases net-zero carbon emissions into the atmosphere
- Net-Zero Emissions - balance the whole amount of GHG released and the amount removed from
- Net-Zero Carbon Emissions – mean that an activity releases net-zero carbon emissions into the atmosphere.
What is a Carbon Footprint?
Eating, traveling, heating your home – they all contribute to your carbon footprint (the emission of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.) For example, taking the plane emits 285g of carbon per kilometre, compared to 104g for a car and 14g for a train.
The average carbon footprint per person in the UK, per year, is 12.7 tonnes CO2e.
But what does it mean?
If you stepped on the scales and weighed a tonne – you’d be a bit concerned.
But in terms of carbon, is a tonne a lot or in the grand scheme of things with the planets size, is it a drop in the ocean?
Let’s compare:
- Heating – you’d have to have it on full blast for 80 days straight (although it would explode before you got there)
- Driving – you’d have to drive 23,000 miles in the average car – that’s once around the world!
- Food - you’d have to eat over 1,000 beef steaks or 4,100 camemberts!
Or in terms of what 12.7 tonnes would be the equivalent weight:
- 18 dairy cows
- 10,500 bottles of wine
- 25 million plastic straws.
How do you measure Carbon?
Personally, through a Carbon Footprint Calculator or using a Carbon Consulting Company who use the accounting tool; the Greenhouse Gas Protocol.
These calculators will add up the carbon dioxide produced by your activities from the impact of manufacturing the product in the factory (the impact is usually ‘offset’) and the shipping and distributions costs (whether plane, ships or cars are involved).
These calculations can be done on different levels and usually categorised into ‘scopes’.
- Scope 1 - covers direct emissions from your company’s owned or controlled sources, such as fuel combustion, vehicles, and fugitive emissions.
- Scope 2 - consists of purchased electricity, heat and steam used for heating and cooling that produce indirect emissions.
- Scope 3 – alongside the criteria from Scope 1 and 2, Scope 3 includes all the other indirect emissions occurring in your company’s value chain. Those can be anything from business travel to purchased goods and services, waste disposal and employee commuting.
Source: GHG Protocol Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Accounting and Reporting Standard, page 33
Once the total carbon footprint is calculated, you’ll have a better sense of how much your company needs to counteract. Firstly, reducing carbon emissions – can you fly the product rather than put it on a boat? Once you’ve acted on the worst offenders and reduced your footprint, you’ll then ‘offset’ what’s left.
What’s the difference between ‘offsetting’ and ‘insetting’?
Carbon offsetting is the means of investing in carbon reduction or sequestration projects in order to compensate for your own emissions. This is done by buying ‘carbon credits’. Often with an offset scheme that has no connection to your business beyond the financial transaction of paying for offsets
Carbon insetting is a similar idea, but the crucial difference is that the offsetting happens in an area over which your organisation has some control. For example, while traditional offsetting might involve choosing a renewables project to invest in, carbon insetting might involve setting up your own renewables project on site, or investing in that of a supplier.
So what does it mean to become Carbon-Neutral?
In a nut shell carbon neutrality means having a balance between emitting carbon and absorbing carbon from the atmosphere in carbon sinks.
A carbon sink system is any system that absorbs more carbon than it emits, so think soil, forests and oceans. These natural sinks then release carbon into the atmosphere through forest fires, changes in land use or logging (the process of cutting, processing, and moving trees) hence it being essential to reduce carbon emissions in order to reach climate neutrality.
According to estimates, natural sinks remove between 9.5 and 11GT (gigatonnes of carbon) of CO2 per year. in 2019 annual global CO2 emissions reach 38GT. And to date, no artificial carbon sinks are able to remove carbon from the atmosphere on the scale needed to fight global warming.
Some products can be made from sustainable cotton, recycled bottles or tyres and not be carbon neutral, this is often a misconception, they’re environmentally conscious. But the products themselves don’t offset the carbon that’s needed to produce them.
However, …
A business can become carbon neutral and reduce their footprint to Net-Zero, but it wouldn’t affect the products they sell and vice versa, selling a carbon neutral product wouldn’t impact a business’s carbon footprint.
It’s a juggling act, you need both carbon neutral products and investment in reducing your carbon footprint to become Net-Zero.
We’ve a range of environmentally friendly and carbon neutral products that can help you achieve that Net-Zero Status.
Traffi and their LXT gloves
Traffi have calculated their carbon footprint as a company, and this has been offset by their forest development programs in Sri Lanka, working in partnership with their factories to create Carbon Credit Banks to offset our calculated carbon footprint.
Traffi have measured their carbon impact in all their processes in producing the gloves: from raw materials, factory processes, shipping, distribution to the point of delivery to distributor. They’ve calculated the impact was equivalent to cutting down a proportion of healthy forest, and have offset this within their factory’s own Carbon Credit Bank - a development and management of 620 acres of new forest in Sri Lanka . This step is more advanced, it’s called insetting because they’re making good within their own integrated supply chain.
Orn and their EarthPro workwear
Orn have a long-term commitment to being a truly sustainable business and aim to ensure every facet of their business has as little impact on the environment as possible whilst at the same time protecting lives and sustaining livelihoods. They have launched ‘The Sustainability Conversion Project’ which means they’ll evaluate all areas of our operation that impact negatively on the environment and help them develop the detail of their sustainability strategy. Aiming to be carbon neutral by 2030 and reducing their carbon footprint annually by 30%.
Their EarthPro Collection is made using recycled plastic waste and their commitment to sustainability extends beyond the manufacturing of the garments as they’ll recycle any EarthPro garment returned to them, giving it a new lease of life and avoiding them ending up in landfill. The mix and composition of the fabric determines how the garment can be recycled, hence there being 3 tiers: recycling into other garments, recycling into insulation/geotextiles/partition wall/sound boarding or melted into chips and used to create polyester fabrics/energy.
U-Power and their Red Industry Green footwear
U-Power are continuing to invest in research and development on a daily basis, optimising their process and reducing their consumption in order to develop green solutions.
They currently have 4 styles which are fully carbon neutral – the first in the world to do this and will increase this offering to 12 styles by May.
The products of the red industry green line have achieved zero net CO2 emissions through the use of materials with reduced environmental impact and the offsetting of the residual
emissions by the purchase of carbon credits certified according to arrangements and methodologies recognised by the United Nations.
So what does all this mean and how can we help you reduce your carbon footprint?
Well get in touch via sales@slatersafety.co.uk or 01772691000 and start that discussion.