Isra-Mart srl : Can a company really be carbon neutral?

www.isra-mart.com

Isra-Mart srl news:

Its unlikely - probably impossible - that a manufacturing company can ever be carbon neutral in regard to the work it does. As soon as a light goes on, or electrical equipment is used, there will be emissions somewhere. Then there are the consumables it might also use or deliveries it makes. The only way a company can absolutely claim to be carbon neutral is to do nothing - no business at all. For some extreme environmental groups, a cessation of industrial activities seems a good way to solve environmental problems.

Most firms that claim to be carbon neutral do so by offsetting their pollution. They buy parts of forests somewhere, or plant trees in a place that has none. The mechanism is that a firm can compensate for their polluting activities in one place by buying or doing something else that is environmentally positive. The claim to be carbon neutral not because they have eliminated pollution but because they have found another business or process that has. Offsets are a complex issue. Not covered by legislation, they exist in a voluntary market. Firms are not obligated by law to become carbon neutral; they only do it as a way of increasing their marketing opportunity in the "green space".

In some extreme case, it could be possible that a company is increasing its carbon emissions but because they are able to buy offsets, the firm can remain 'carbon neutral'. The benefit to the environment is zero, or worse more damaging. The voluntary market places no controls over how a firm uses offsets, only that the amount of offsets compensates for the emissions the firm releases into the atmosphere.

Offsets exist on a global market exchange where it is possible for a small printing business in Australia to buy offsets that have been created in any other part of the world. The ideal situation is where a firm in a country with a high standard of living buys offsets that have been created in a developing nation such as India or parts of Africa. Offsets in this example achieve two desirable outcomes. Firstly where the offsets are created from an approved project under criteria such as the Kyoto protocol, the offsets have been verified under any one of a number of mechanisms, such as the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). This robust system was developed at the Kyoto climate summit in 1997.

The second important role played by this type of offset is the possible social and economic benefit that is played out in a poorer nation.

Claims by small firms that they are carbon neutral and the quality of the offsets the firm chooses are totally voluntary. The legal vagaries in the area can lead a firm into significant trouble if they believe the lack of legal rigor means they can take short cuts when it comes to "carbon neutral" claims.

The ACCC have made it very clear that any claims in regard to environmental certifications, in particular claims such as a firm being carbon neutral, can only be made if the management is capable of proving it.

The second issue is that firms that do make clams to be carbon neutral should publish the source of the emissions offsets, and as much as detail as possible on a full description of where the offsets are generated and about the program the offsets have been created under.