Robustly neutral?

Nick Blyth examines the new British Standard designed to address concerns about demonstrating carbon neutrality.

The concept of any organisation, product or entity becoming carbon neutral can generate emotions from engaged optimism (making a difference to a global problem) through to mistrust or even scepticism.

On the plus side is the ability to extend reach beyond internal strategies by measuring, reducing and offsetting your residual greenhouse gas (GHG) footprint to achieve a claimed state of ‘neutrality'.

Set against this are concerns from some about vagueness or uncertainty over claims through to potential "feedback" consequences such as a reduced emphasis on internal reduction measures (if offsets are viewed as the sole or easy option).

To address concerns and the lack of common definition, recognised methods of validation, and other inconsistencies, BSI has developed PAS 2060 - Publicly Available Specification for the demonstration of carbon neutrality.

A working group has been developing this PAS, which, following recent consultations, will be published this month.

IEMA’s GHG management hierarchy is intended as a policy guide to help ensure organisations address their priority direct and indirect effects whenever decisions are being made on approaches to reducing GHG emissions. It is not intended as a strict sequential hierarchy for every situation and measures such as offsetting need not necessarily held back. The hierarchy is however a reminder of key principles to work through in strategy development and decision making and the over-arching importance of avoidance and reductions at source.

PAS 2060 is an opportunity to inject integrity by establishing clear and consistent requirements for demonstrating carbon neutrality. By including at source ‘reduction' of emissions as an essential element, PAS 2060 can encourage increased carbon management.

It builds on standards such as the ISO 14000 series and PAS 2050 and will lay down requirements which must be met by any entity seeking to achieve and demonstrate carbon neutrality through the quantification, reduction and offsetting of GHG emissions.

IEMA has participated in the development of PAS 2060, both as a follow on to our own workshop and response to DECC's consultation in 2009 (guidance and definition for carbon neutrality) and also to comments from members at IEMA GHG reporting workshops in 2009.

As a result, various important principles are being incorporated into PAS 2060. For example:

• organisations (entities) will need clearly and unambiguously to determine the subject of any intended claim for carbon neutrality;
• a methodology must be selected and used to quantify the carbon (GHG) footprint of the subject in line with defined requirements. Potentially suitable methodologies are identified, and these include ISO 14064, the GHG Protocol, Defra / DECC's 2009 guidance for organisations and PAS 2050;
• a Carbon Footprint Management Plan is required and the entity must take action to reduce the carbon footprint of the determined subject (ie reductions are required and an entity can't simply offset its full footprint each year);
• offsets will need to meet stated standards and principles which include the criteria of additionality, permanence, leakage and double counting; and
• there will be a requirement to produce a Qualifying Explanatory Statement (QES) to cover a wide range of issues, such as the methodologies used, size of the footprint, the rationale for selecting subject and defining boundaries, etc. The QES must be publicly available, accurate, relevant and not misleading.

In September, DECC published guidance for organisations wishing to claim carbon neutrality, defined as: "through a transparent process of calculating emissions, reducing those emissions and offsetting residual emissions - net carbon emissions equal zero."

The DECC guidance has synergy with the principles and requirements of PAS 2060 and also with the GHG management hierarchy proposed by IEMA within Practitioner volume 14 (see graphic above).

Organisations need to give careful consideration to offsetting and claims of carbon neutrality. There may be concerns regarding brand and corporate reputation, especially if the claim is not substantiated or is the only element of an organisational strategy.

In contrast, carbon offsetting can enable organisations to extend their strategy and make additional contributions (beyond reductions at source). A fundamental requirement is to be clear and transparent about your approach. PAS 2060 offers a step forward for organisations seeking a robust approach.