What is your company’s carbon footprint?
Reducing emissions by 55% by 2030 and reaching union-wide carbon neutrality by the year 2050
It took more than eight years for 195 countries to take joint responsibility for limiting climate change after the Paris Agreement was signed in 2015. One of the key ways of stopping our planet´s warming is reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In light of this, the EU has committed to two principal climate goals: reducing emissions by 55% by 2030 (compared to 1990) and reaching union-wide carbon neutrality by 2050.
In addition to the Paris Agreement, the European Green Deal provides an opportunity for businesses and citizens to contribute to shaping the political landscape. More and more companies are leading the way by committing to strive for increased environmental sustainability and reduced climate impact of their activities. The soon-to-be-finished Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) will not leave room for inactivity, as it will make certain sustainability-related actions mandatory for the in-scope organisations – read more from our other article here.
But the sustainability rationale extends beyond the political agenda
However, the sustainability rationale extends beyond the political agenda. Within recent years, there has been a considerable increase in the market demand for sustainability, which has significant financial implications for businesses:
- Reducing the climate impact often helps identify different possibilities for resource efficiency or waste reduction, thus lowering operating costs.
- Political goals of the European Union and its member states provide new directions for businesses’ climate actions, as achieving the goals by 2050 requires developing relevant support measures. Climate impact (incl. its reduction potential) assessment is becoming a mandatory prerequisite for applying for EU funding (e.g. EU Innovation Fund).
- Demand for sustainably produced products is rising in B2B and B2C sectors. The demand for sustainable retail goods is growing over five times faster than regular goods (NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business, 2019).
At Civitta, we also believe that dealing with one’s environmental and climate impact is a driving force for the company’s development and a differentiating factor in the competition. Besides helping to identify potential risks and opportunities, sustainability action also enables cost reductions throughout the organisation.
We advise companies to start their sustainability journey by identifying their impacts – for example, via carbon footprint assessment. This assessment provides a detailed overview of the company´s climate impact and helps identify its primary sources.
Carbon footprint assessment provides insight into the resulting GHG emissions by product categories, input resources, and production processes. We follow recognised standards and methodologies, such as Greenhouse Gas Protocol standards (primarily The Corporate Reporting and Accounting Standard) – ISO 14000 series (internationally used framework for life cycle assessment – LCA) and other standards and guidelines (primarily for specific sectors and products).
Carbon footprint assessment helps consider all the greenhouse gases in the Kyoto Protocol (e.g., CO2, N2O, CH4), presenting the result in CO2 equivalent (CO2eq). According to the GHG Protocol, the organisation´s climate impact is connected to the company´s direct activities (scope 1 emissions), the generation of used energy (scope 2 emissions) and upstream-downstream resources and activities (scope 3 emissions).
In addition to carbon footprint (i.e., climate impact), we also evaluate other environmental impacts. For example, a prerequisite for applying for an Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) is LCA, which enables the evaluation of the impact associated with each product lifecycle stage (e.g., production, use, disposal, etc.).
Besides climate impact, LCA also considers other impact categories such as acidification of waterbodies and soil, water use, ozone layer depletion and toxicity.
We execute carbon footprint assessment in three stages
In the first stage, we focus on identifying the sources of GHG emissions, for which we map all processes, inputs (e.g., electricity and materials), and end-products within the organisation. After collecting the necessary input data and results with a custom-made calculation model, we begin an assessment. It ends with a clear and transparent report, which summarises the analysis results concisely. We can do it in a free format or by following specific reporting frameworks, such as the widely recognised Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) standards – read more from our other article here. In addition to the results, we also provide suggestions for impact reduction.
It ends with a clear and transparent report, which summarises the analysis results concisely. We can do it in a free format or by following specific reporting frameworks, such as the widely recognised Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) standards – read more from our other article here. In addition to the results, we also provide suggestions for impact reduction.
Carbon footprint assessment establishes a thorough, data-based foundation for setting a business´ sustainability goals and developing a clear roadmap towards impact reduction.
The established quantitative starting point enables you to measure your future progress and find opportunities for process optimisation and cost reduction.