Carbon Neutral Certification

Carbon neutral certification is a core pillar of unlocking new revenue streams for our customers

Before we talk about certification, lets talk about carbon neutrality itself.

What is carbon neutral?

  • It is the process of offsetting greenhouse gas emissions that result from activities you undertake as a business, or making procurement decisions that result in no greenhouse gas emissions, such as procuring services or goods from a carbon neutral certified company. The end result of these activities is no net release of carbon dioxide, carbon neutral.

How can I become carbon neutral?

  • Planning how to account for carbon and completing a carbon inventory is the first step to achieving carbon neutrality. After that, it is important to consider the method for achieving carbon neutrality that is most aligned with your business strategy, which is usually a combination of energy efficiency, generation measures and carbon offset certificate purchases.

What are the benefits?

  • Being carbon neutral means your business is conducting its operations in a manner oriented to the health of the planet. It sends a signal to all potential customers, suppliers and shareholders that your business is attuned to the risks and opportunities that climate change represents, and that you are willing to be on the forefront of societal improvement.

Carbon neutral visualised

Emissions
Reduce emissions
Carbon monoxide on cloud, pollution icon
Remaining emissions
Offsets to eliminate remaining emissions

0

Zero emissions

Certification

There are two certifications we recommend, Climate Active and UN Climate Neutral Now. Each has core structural differences that are fundamental to how the certification is completed.

Climate Active

Australian Government backed initiative

  • Certify your carbon neutral operations
  • Demonstrate your commitment to climate
  • Provide carbon neutral services to others

UN Climate Neutral Now

United Nations backed initiative

  • Pledge to reduce your emissions to zero
  • Implement an energy productivity plan
  • Become internationally recognised

When your business is certified carbon neutral, any other business or person procuring services and products from your business does not add to their scope 3 emissions.

  • Scope 3 emissions are emissions from items that are not direct energy uses or purchases, such as the methane released from waste generated, services rendered from suppliers and the end use application of products sold to customers.

Climate Active

Climate Active is an Australian government initiative which provides Australian businesses with an approved framework to undertake measurement, reporting and public disclosure of their carbon neutral status. It is Australia's collective initiative for climate action.

It is Australia's collective initiative for climate action that enables consumers, businesses, investors and government to confirm with confidence a carbon neutral claim has met a robust standard and is legitimate.

Once a business has achieved a status of Climate Active approved, it is able to use the trademark and logo on its branding.

Organisations that have achieved Climate Active approval are able to provide services to other businesses and consumers without increasing their scope 3 emissions, a highly valuable commodity where others are attempting to achieve carbon neutrality.

Certification

Maintaining certification is an ongoing annual process.

  • Sign a license agreement (lasts two years)
  • Use an appropriate method to calculate carbon emissions from all scope 1 and 2 emissions, and select relevant scope 3 emissions to account for
  • Develop a strategy to reduce emissions over time without the use of offsets
  • Purchase offsets to eliminate any residual emissions
  • Independently verify carbon emissions calculations and carbon neutral claim
  • Create and sign a public disclosure statement to publish on your own website and social feeds and the Climate Active website

UN Climate Neutral Now

The Climate Neutral Now initiative was launched in 2015 and has evolved since then to become a tool for raising awareness, promoting and facilitating the estimation of carbon footprints, engaging in energy efficiency activities and voluntary offsetting.

The focus of the initiative is to promote sustainable long term transition for those who cannot achieve carbon neutral operations immediately. There is no annual membership fee to participate.

Certification

Maintaining certification is an ongoing annual process.

  • Sign the pledge to indicate your intent to achieve climate neutral
  • Quantify your emissions through a carbon inventory
  • Build an emissions reduction plan and implement projects over time
  • Optionally, contribute to an approved offset project to become carbon neutral
  • Publicly disclose progress to the UN and your stakeholders

In contrast to Climate Active, you do not need to currently be carbon neutral to achieve certification, you can pledge to take action and achieve different levels of certification based on your achievements each year.