Organizations and their climate goals. What are they? And how can they meet them?
An intro to climate goals. Some laughs from John Oliver on carbon offsets. A brief example of an organization trying to do its part.
Welcome back to the Climate Plug newsletter. Today we'll discuss climate goals, differences between common goals, and the frameworks/certifications organizations will align with to support them in reaching and validating those goals.
A necessary thank you to all of you who have subscribed since the first newsletter! If you came across this newsletter from elsewhere, we'd love to see you back.😊
Todays Agenda
Meaning Behind Common Climate Goals
An Intro to Frameworks & Certifications
What do you mean by climate goals? 🏆
Very simply a goal/claim made by a company/organization about its goals or achievements in emissions reductions and sustainability. The wording here is purposeful; climate goals/claims. I choose this verbiage because many organizations still need to hit those goals.
A climate goal could be anything. For example, a delivery service might set a plan to shift its fleet from traditional vehicles to electric to avoid the emissions related to using that gasoline. However, there are some broader goals more commonly used by many organizations.
Today we'll cover "Carbon Neutral" and "Net-Zero."
What is "Carbon Neutral"?
A straightforward definition of carbon neutrality can be briefly described as the balance between emitted carbon and the natural capture of carbon emissions from carbon sinks, like forests or oceans, eliminating all carbon emissions.
How do organizations achieve carbon neutrality? As a call back to our last newsletter, they must measure their total carbon footprint first. Then organizations can work on reducing their emissions in areas they can do so and work with carbon offsets to do the rest.
At the time of writing this newsletter, I am confident it is impossible to eliminate all of your emissions without carbon offsetting. Also, what is carbon offsetting? It's funding projects that help remove carbon from the atmosphere. Reforestation, natural gas capture, and regenerative farming are good examples. Note that carbon offsetting can be very controversial as many projects do not viably reduce the amount of carbon they claim. This video from Last Week Tonight with John Oliver is a tremendous comedic break approach to talking about carbon offsets and is very informative.
At the moment carbon neutrality can only be claimed with the help of offsets. Organizations can still find quality offsets to fund by partnering with a quality carbon offset provider.
What about "Net-Zero"? How is it different from "Carbon Neutral"? 🤷
Both terms speak to how organizations are reducing their emissions. As we discussed above, "Carbon-Neutral" means neutralizing carbon emitted via different methods like reductions or the purchase of offsets. At some point, the "Carbon-Neutral" organization emitted carbon, and they are balancing those emissions with other means.
"Net-zero" means avoiding emissions from ever being emitted. The organization implemented practices to avoid emissions entirely. No carbon was emitted. As a result, the buildings they occupy and the cars they drive emit no carbon. That's the critical difference; that's it.
An organization's vehicle fleet could claim to be "Net-Zero," assuming they use electric vehicles charged with renewable energy. The challenging part is reaching "Net-Zero" across their entire business operations.
Humans can claim "Net-Zero" when/if we stop adding greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. A tall order to fill.
An example:
Bucuti & Tara beach resort in Aruba is a vacation resort with a significant focus on sustainability. They were awarded a Global Climate Action winner by the UN in 2020 and had expansive content on what they are doing to make sustainability a priority within their organization.
This organization is an excellent example of understanding the differences between "Carbon-Neutral" and "Net-zero." On their sustainability page, they advertise themselves as a "Carbon-Neutral" organization with a goal of "Net-Zero" by 2050. Some things to call out, though; they have not updated their sustainability report since 2020 and do not share actual emissions numbers or how much carbon they reduce via offsets.
They are a great example of an organization going beyond just measuring and reducing its carbon footprint. The effort is there. The organization has focused on the local economy, environment, and people they impact. While not directly related to their carbon footprint, it's an important area for organizations to focus on sustainability.
Now when you see a claim about carbon neutrality from an organization like this, you might remember that they've done this with carbon emission reductions and carbon offset purchasing strategies.
How is Bucuti & Tara claiming they're "Carbon-Neutral," though? Well, that brings us to our last segment.
What frameworks or certifications verify these goals? 🧐
From the research I've done so far, there are a few different ways organizations verify these claims. However, it will always end up with an audit process. The difference currently lies within who the verifier is.
Certification organizations
Who the verifier is could play a significant role in the credit of some of these organizations' climate certifications. From my research, I've found that, generally, these organizations fall into three main buckets.
Nonprofit certifiers
These organizations provide a certification based on a framework they've established, or preexisting frameworks, as a nonprofit entity. Companies like ClimateNeutral would fall into this category and have stamped their badge of approval on big names like REI.
Government-sponsored
From my research, this category is bucketed explicitly for the Science Based Targets Initiative (or SBTi). The SBTi is a partnership between CDP, the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC), World Resources Institute (WRI), and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).
Other
These organizations provide a climate certification and are not sponsored by any government or operate as nonprofit entities.
Ultimately organizations looking to validate their climate goals and achievements will want to find a quality organization and framework to follow and verify them.
The challenging part for stakeholders, customers, employees, etc., within an organization, is knowing the credibility of the certifying organization and what that organization has actually achieved. Understanding some of these common frameworks and what organizations have to do to meet their requirements will come in the following newsletters. (so don't forget to subscribe 😊)
As an organization do your research on your climate goals and back up your claims with action. As an individual look at what climate goals an organization have made and what resources they’ve provided to support it.
We may see a change in this market of certifications and frameworks in the future as the world tries to shift away from greenwashing and inadequate climate goal claims. But, for now, Climate Plug posts will keep you informed!
Final Note
I hope you all had a great holiday weekend with close friends and/or family. Thank you all again for subscribing and consuming Climate Plug content. If you've found this helpful, please share it with your network.
If you're left wanting more, let me know. I plan to shape future newsletters off on your feedback.
See you next week! 👋