Preparing a Carbon Footprint

In 2007 a small bag of Walkers cheese and onion crisps gained notoriety as the first food product to be carbon foot printed. Three years on, UK consumer sales of carbon labelled products has reached £2bn a year, with over £1bn sales of carbon labelled business products. In such a short space of time, the concept of carbon management and carbon footprinting has emerged to be part of our common business language. Indeed there is a prospect for mandatory carbon reporting (initially perhaps just for larger businesses) being introduced by 2012.

Why is carbon such an issue? Firstly it has been linked to climate change. There may be small pockets of dissent about man’s impact on climate change, but the majority of scientific opinion is that we are making a contribution. Carbon dioxide is a green house gas. In the atmosphere, these gasses slow the rate of heat escaping from the planet. Significant amounts of carbon dioxide are created by burning fossil fuels and by changing land use. Being carbon aware means paying more attention to how we use oil, coal and gas. This is not a bad thing as we will never see the planet’s stocks of these fuels replenished in our lifetime. As they get scarcer they are likely to become more expensive.

There are a number of other green house gasses which contribute to climate change, for example methane. To simplify measurement, these gasses are converted into carbon dioxide equivalents. This is similar to a currency converter; calculating the euro equivalent of a handful of different currencies.

There are two ways a business can produce a carbon footprint. One is to take the Walkers approach and to footprint a “product” which companies like Dyson, Tesco, and Morphy Richards are now doing. The process identifies all the stages involved in producing, consuming and disposing of a product – sometimes known as cradle to grave. A challenge when undertaking this type of carbon footprint is identifying the boundary around supplier and customer activity. There are now guidelines which outline a robust and transparent process for undertaking a product footprint.

The second approach is to prepare an “organisational” carbon footprint. The start point is to record issues like the amount of energy used to operate equipment and provide heat and power, the amount of business miles travelled and the amount of waste produced. These figures are then multiplied by a “conversion factor” which calculates the amount of carbon being generated. The conversion factors are increasingly sophisticated, for example identifying the emissions for a small car with a 1.4 litre diesel engine, compared to a 1.4 litre petrol engine. These figures can then be totalled to produce an annual organisation carbon budget.

While carbon management and footprinting may be a new concept for many businesses, it is here to stay. With energy and fuel prices set to increase in the future, being more carbon aware will make good environmental and financial sense.

Key carbon management issues for your business -

Being carbon literate will make increasing financial sense to businesses, helping them to become more energy and waste efficient. It helped Walkers reduce their energy spend by £400k.

For some businesses carbon accounting will become a requirement, driven by legislation, supply chain or peer pressure. It is a relatively simple process to establish a carbon management programme and there is significant interest in early movers.

Businesses should think of a carbon hierarchy to help them reduce their footprint; firstly reduce energy use, review travel choices and minimise waste, secondly investigate the use of alternative fuels and thirdly use carbon offsets and sequestration to “soak up” carbon emitted through business operations.

For more information on these topic or to discuss its implications for your organisation, contact archie@practically-green.co.uk or phone 07584 297485

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