Carbon footprint
Carbon footprinting measures the greenhouse gas emissions caused by an organisation, event or product.
Purpose
More and more companies are undertaking carbon management strategies, and corporate or product carbon footprints are a common first step. Carbon footprinting can be pursued for different purposes, fulfill different needs, and be characterized by very different levels of effort and financial costs. The challenge facing companies is to generate quality footprints that meet today’s needs as cost-effectively as possible, while anticipating future needs for footprinting information.
Benefits
Corporate and product carbon footprints speak to the fact that we cannot manage what is not measured. Beyond responding to stakeholder or client requests, carbon footprints are a necessary first step toward voluntary emissions reduction efforts or commitments, and toward being strategically positioned for future emission reduction mandates.
As for the bottom line, many companies have found that carbon footprints help them spot significant cost saving opportunities, as well as opportunities to significantly reduce the carbon-intensity of their products and services.
Features
DNV offers a suite of carbon footprinting products and services to cost-effectively address corporate needs, including:
- Event footprints, which often need to include not only direct emissions, but also Scope 3 emissions (eg, supply-chain related emissions, event-related travel emissions, event-related lodging, and emissions from waste disposal). A credible event footprint is a prerequisite to any effort to brand an event as carbon neutral.
- Voluntary corporate footprints, which can be customized to the needs of specific circumstance and voluntary footprinting standards.
- Product footprinting or life cycle assessment (LCA), is increasingly being required by major retailers as a measure of the GHG-intensity of a product or service. LCA information is increasingly being provided to consumers in order to influence their purchasing patterns, making it crucial that companies understand and adhere to the details of such newly developed standards as PAS 2050.
After preparing the types of carbon footprints profiled above, many companies will want or need to pursue third party verification of the footprint. DNV can also provide third party verification services.
Our experience
We have been responding to customers’ carbon footprinting needs for more than ten years, and have since worked with companies of all sizes, and from all parts of the world, to cost-effectively satisfy their widely varying carbon footprinting needs. Just as important, we have worked with many of these same companies to help them identify and gather the benefits of carbon footprinting, from cost savings to brand development to compliance.
With the growing interest in carbon neutral products and services, we have helped companies reap the benefits of such interests, while avoiding the very real potential pitfalls of unjustified environmental claims.
