What it means to be a carbon neutral company

Just thought we would update everybody on what carbon neutral is, and why we have decided to become carbon neutral.

In order to become carbon neutral we have worked out our carbon footprint, selected a project where the emissions from our footprint will be offset - in our case the Habitat Portfolio (which includes avoided deforestation and reforestation projects) - and paid the fees to do this.

What is carbon footprinting?

This is considered by many to be the first step in reducing carbon emissions. This is the calculation of the total set of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions caused directly or indirectly by an individual, organisation, event or product.

The main reason for calculating a carbon footprint is to inform decisions on how to reduce the climate change impact of a company, service or product. Once the size of a carbon footprint is known, a strategy can be devised to reduce it. 

How are carbon emissions measured?

The Greenhouse Gas Protocol (GHG Protocol) is the most widely used international accounting tool to understand, quantify, and manage GHG emissions. The Protocol categorises emissions into three ‘scopes’:

• Scope 1: All direct GHG emissions – e.g. natural gas consumption
• Scope 2: Indirect GHG emissions – e.g. consumption of electricity
• Scope 3: Other indirect emissions – e.g. water use, waste disposal etc

What does it mean to become ‘carbon neutral’?

Carbon neutrality is achieved by calculating a carbon footprint and reducing it to zero through a combination of efficiency measures in-house and supporting external emission reduction projects.

It is important to us that we don't just pay to offset but have tried our best to limit 'avoidable' emissions in the first place and offsetting only our ‘unavoidable’ emissions.

The ways we try to reduce our avoidable emissions are listed in our 'About us' page