Climate change is one of the most severe threats facing civilisation worldwide. Corporations as a whole are greatly responsible for the greater percentage of climate change globally. There is no getting around it: climate change is a global problem. If the world cannot rapidly curb emissions, we will quickly run out of viable options to adapt to its effects. Hence, companies worldwide have a vital role to play in reducing their carbon footprint and helping the world achieve its necessary emissions targets.
In this article, we have compiled five sure ways to help companies reduce their carbon footprint. First, let’s unravel what a carbon footprint entails.
Your organisation’s carbon footprint is the total carbon emissions (greenhouse gas emissions) generated by all of your combined business activities, the products and services you use and even the use of your products by your customers. Therefore, any greenhouse gases emitted (carbon dioxide, methane, etc.) as a result of business activities fall under your company’s carbon footprint.
1) Reduce Waste
Strategies such as reducing your organisation’s energy usage and reducing business-related travel are highly important. However, reducing the overall waste of your organisation is another non-obvious but powerful strategy to reduce your carbon footprint.
Ultimately, all the office supplies your organisation uses daily have their own carbon footprint. Therefore, reducing, reusing, and recycling as much as possible will allow your company to cut down on the emissions associated with producing this material.
2) Buy Carbon Offsets
There is a certain amount of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions that are still unavoidable as of this time. Unfortunately, until clean energy infrastructure is more widespread and the burning of fossil fuels continues, this will keep happening.
Asides implementing other strategies mentioned in this article, you need to also leverage carbon offsets to account for the unavoidable emissions.
Carbon offset is a process that allows you to make up for the carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions you produce by reducing emissions somewhere else. You can find out the cost of carbon offsetting here. You can also read more about carbon offsetting and how it works here.
3) Reduce Energy Use
In many cases, the total energy usage of a company will be one of the most significant aspects of its carbon footprint. This is simply because burning fossil fuels is responsible for nearly all energy production. In fact, according to a report by Forbes in 2020, fossil fuels accounted for 84% of the world’s energy. So chances are, the majority of the energy usage by your company involves fossil fuels too.
As such, the most straightforward and first thing your business should do is take steps to reduce this energy usage as much as possible. Not only is this good for the planet, but it can also help cut costs, making it advantageous for your bottom line, too.
4) Transition To Renewable Energy Sources
While many actions can significantly reduce your company’s energy usage, they obviously cannot reduce it in its entirety. When you look at all the sources of greenhouse gas emissions burning fossil fuels to produce energy generates the vast majority of them.
However, your company can drastically reduce this aspect of its carbon footprint by investing in or transitioning away from fossil fuels into renewable energy sources. Want to know everything about climate, greenhouse gases and how they affect the world we live in today, then you should read the “climate bible” here.
How To Choose The Right Carbon Offset Program
With several carbon offset schemes out there it can be hard to know which to go for. Carbon offset programs are used by individuals and businesses to neutralize their carbon emissions. The carbon offset projects offered by these programs are intended to provide real reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.
Carbon offset programs allow individuals or companies to invest in carbon offset projects, locally or internationally, as a way of balancing their carbon footprint. For example, an individual can invest money in a wind power project in Germany to offset the amount of carbon produced by their daily commute. A business may choose to invest in programs to offset employees’ air travel or the carbon required to deliver their products. Carbon offset programs provide a real opportunity to be part of the climate change solution. In 2022, there are a number of impactful carbon offset programs to choose from. The question is, which one allows you to make the biggest difference? First, you need to count your cost and have an estimate so that you can decide the best offset project to go for. This article summarizes in detail the cost of offset projects.
Written by: Stephen Akadiri
