We are great fans of the work done by Charlie Cotton at eCollective Travel in helping companies audit and cut their carbon footprint.
Charlie recently shared his thoughts to help you cut through the ‘greenwash’ and understand what companies really mean behind their carbon cutting terminology:
Carbon Neutral: “I have done a high-level guess of my footprint and have bought offsets yearly to cover those emissions”
Climate Positive: “I want to do better than just be carbon neutral so I will spend a little more on some more offsets”
Carbon Negative: See climate positive
Carbon Positive: No idea, must be a typo. They probably mean carbon negative or climate positive, but who knows?
Zero Carbon: Magic! This company has no carbon footprint whatsoever.
Science Based Targets*: “We accurately measure our emissions and then aim to reduce them year on year in line with limiting the world to a 1.5-degree temperature increase”
Net Zero*: “We report on all our emissions, try to reduce them as much as possible, and then—we invest in projects that either prevent emissions elsewhere or pull carbon out of the air to reach a “net-zero” balance on paper”
Aim for ‘Net Zero’
* None of these methods are perfect, but companies should be aiming for ‘Net Zero’ using ‘Science Based Targets’. Doing nothing is not an option.
Find out more about eCollective Travel on their website
Photo from Greenability Magazine