Globally, the world is moving toward proactively measuring Greenhouse Gases (GHG) and reducing their contribution to climate change. Europe has established the European Climate Exchange, which is the leading marketplace for trade in carbon dioxide emissions within Europe and internationally. While in the United States, the voluntary Chicago Climate Exchange operates North America’s only cap and trade system for all six greenhouse gases, with global affiliates and projects worldwide. In Canada, the federal government continues to move toward plans for reducing GHG emissions with the introduction of its Regulatory Framework for Air Emissions in 2007,the Turning the Corner: An Action Plan to Reduce Greenhouse Gases and Air Pollution in 2008, and has since developed Canada’s Offset System for Greenhouse Gases which will likely set the basis for a Canadian carbon market. Meanwhile, on the provincial level, British Columbia has mandated through its Greenhouse Gas Reduction Targets Act that the provincial government, including provincial ministries and agencies, schools, colleges, universities, health authorities and Crown corporations will be carbon neutral by 2010. Of course, this legally binding commitment is impossible to achieve without shutting the entire system down. The government’s solution is to become carbon neutral by purchasing carbon offsets. Specifically, it has established the crown corporation Pacific Carbon Trust to acquire credible GHG offsets on its behalf. A carbon offset is essentially a reduction of GHG emissions in one area to balance the emissions from another activity. So, does this mean you need to make your business carbon neutral too? Maybe.

The business case for buying offsets can appear obvious in some cases. For example, in 2007 Harbour Air became the first airline in North America to achieve complete carbon neutrality in both their flight services and corporate operations. Their competitor, Westcoast Air, became carbon neutral in 2009. Neither company stopped fueling their planes, so how is this even possible? They achieved this by calculating their carbon footprint, taking steps to reduce where they could, and buying carbon offsets for what they could not.. Harbour Air and Westcoast Air service a lot of government related travel, and by becoming carbon neutral they kept their customer happy. So, yes, good for the environment, but it is also a strategic manoeuvre that’s good for business.

What if your business is not particularly dependant on the government, but is dependent on a healthy environment? Another leader in the corporate stewardship community is Canadian Mountain Holidays that offers heli-skiing and summer adventure programs. They wrote their first sustainability report in 2004, updated it in 2007 and again in 2010. They have done a lot to minimize their impact on the environment, and noticeably entitle their reports “Moving Towards Sustainability”. This is an important title as it recognises that becoming sustainable is a journey, not a quick project or something for your marketing department to address. However, there is one thing they cannot eliminate and that is the need to fuel their helicopters, which leaves them with a carbon footprint that cannot be eliminated with today’s technology. Again purchasing offsets seems the way to manage this in the interim.

On an extreme bent, one could simply dismiss the purchasing of carbon offsets as just another tax. For, if all that is being done is spending money to be able to state your company is carbon neutral, then it’s money wasted. As a business person, the fundamental question is, do I spend money buying offsets so I can claim carbon neutrality, or do I spend that money on other aspects of my operation to reduce my carbon footprint? If customers are demanding it, then offsets are a short term fix. However, it does not change operational issues which will lead to a loss of competitive ground as we shift to a low carbon economy. To remain competitive, assessing your carbon risks and opportunities is critical.

If becoming carbon neutral is important to your business, there are a lot of offset companies with varying degrees of quality. It is an evolving market, and some analysis of the effectiveness of carbon offset purchases has been conducted, which would be worth reviewing before making any purchases. Check out this Ecobusiness Link’s assessment as well as this Climate Off Set Guide created by the David Suzuki Foundation to get a feel for the options and the quality.

Greenomics’ approach is to assess the risks and opportunities and dentify solutions that are quantifiable, presents your company in the best possible light, and edge you further toward a competitive edge in this evolving market.

Summer Season in Northern Hemisphere

For us folks who live in the north, it is prime holiday time and many of us won’t be staying at home. If you want to enjoy your vacation and be carbon neutral, ETHOS announced on July 9th, 2010 with the help of Minister Krueger, Minister of Tourism, Culture and the Arts, and Minister Yap, Minister of State for Climate Action, some of their newly available tools and resources for the tourism industry. ETHOS has developed two easy to use tools to help reduce carbon footprints for tourists and tourism operators. For the tourist, you can use their new Travel Offset Calculator, which enables visitors to British Columbia to offset their travel carbon footprint. For the operator, you can measure, report, and reduce your carbon footprint using the Gobi Carbon Management Tool.

Have a Great Carbon Neutral Summer!