Peak Design And BioLite Founders Launch Climate Neutral

Whether you’re creating products or providing services, there’s an unavoidable carbon footprint. And while awareness of climate change and the vital need to combat it is increasing amongst consumers and corporations alike, fast action is paramount to counter the negative effects of climate change.

Climate Neutral is an independent non-profit organization created to accelerate such action. How? By encouraging companies to take corporate responsibility for their carbon emissions, and by enabling consumers to make informed purchasing decisions about products and services.

Co-founded by Peter Dering (Peak Design founder and CEO) and Jonathan Cedar (BioLite founder and CEO), Climate Neutral aims to put a price on carbon emissions and to encourage businesses to achieve a net-zero carbon footprint by measuring, reducing, and offsetting those emissions. Businesses who successfully do so will be allowed to label their products and services as Climate Neutral Certified.

So how does it work?

Solutions to combat climate change already exist. And while they aren’t free, they can actually be exceedingly affordable, costing just a small fraction of a business’s revenue.

Businesses who choose to become Climate Neutral Certified not only pay for all of their carbon emissions but also accelerate the implementation of low-carbon technologies. The process involves three steps: measuring, reducing and offsetting carbon emissions to become carbon neutral.

Measure

Businesses must first measure their scope 1, 2 and 3 carbon emissions (i.e. their carbon footprint). These cover direct and indirect emissions from every part of the supply chain, from initial product or service creation to delivery. For example mining, power, manufacturing, office usage, packaging, travel, shipping and more all contribute towards carbon emissions. Measuring a business’s carbon footprint can be complex but Climate Neutral are developing tools to create an easy and standardized measurement process.

Reduce

Once the business’s entire carbon footprint has been measured, the next step is to reduce emissions through continuous and impactful means. Businesses need to commit to two new reduction efforts each year. Climate Neutral will help businesses identify the most impactful reduction opportunities for their particular operation. These might include switching to recycled materials, using renewable power, creating smarter packaging and/or cutting down on travel.

Offset

It’s currently almost impossible for businesses to have no carbon emissions either directly or indirectly attributable to them. So offsetting emissions that can’t immediately be reduced is a vital part of the process. By purchasing carbon offsets, businesses are supporting projects that reduce or sequester emissions elsewhere, for example renewable energy, reforestation, no-till farming or capturing landfill gas.

Greenhouse gases can be quantified through using tCO2e as a unit of measurement, which refers to a metric ton (or tonne) of carbon dioxide equivalent. For every tonne of CO2e that the business emits, they are required to pay to remove an equal amount of CO2e from the atmosphere elsewhere. There are many carbon offset developers, brokers, and registries already available, but not all offsets are equal. So Climate Neutral will guide businesses to offsets that provide a scientifically audited and verified impact.

It’s important to highlight that carbon offsets should not be considered a license to pollute. Businesses must have suitable reduction plans in place in addition to offsets, or they will not be Climate Neutral Certified.

Label

Once the business has successfully completed the three steps above, they can label their products or services as Climate Neutral Certified. A label that certifies they have measured their carbon footprint, reduced emissions where they could and have offset the remainder, resulting in a net-zero carbon footprint. This label will not only enable consumers to make informed carbon neutral purchases but will encourage other businesses to follow suit.

Why Kickstarter?

Climate Neutral already have 50 brands committed to the initiative. However, they’ve turned to Kickstarter to generate widespread consumer awareness of the Climate Neutral Certified label and to get many more brands on board with what they consider should be a minimum standard of corporate responsibility and sustainability.

Additionally, Climate Neutral needs skilled staff to help businesses measure, reduce and offset their carbon footprint. Through the campaign Climate Neutral hope to fund the creation of a tool that enables diverse large and small businesses alike to easily measure their carbon footprint. While such tools exist, they’re often industry-specific or complicated and not user-friendly. Climate Neutral aim to have their tool developed and ready for large-scale use by 1 January 2020. However, if it takes longer they will continue to use more manual methods to assist businesses in measuring their carbon footprints.

Whether you’re an individual or a business, you can get involved by supporting Climate Neutral with a pledge, joining the initiative and spreading the word to help make this into a globally recognized certification.