As consumers and clients increasingly support environmentally responsible companies, it becomes more and more crucial to understand and manage your carbon footprint.
Product Carbon Footprint
A product carbon footprint is a special application of the LCA methodology that specifically focuses on greenhouse gas emissions. Facilitating such a ‘cradle-to-grave’ carbon footprint analysis of your product will reveal reduction potentials and highlight negative trade-offs, e.g. the shifting of environmental burdens from one stage of the life cycle to another. With a product carbon footprint, you can find out some great options to reduce emissions, upstream in the supply chain and downstream at the use and disposal phases.
Organizational Carbon Footprint
To obtain your organizational carbon footprint, LTS helps assess the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from business activities over the course of one year, building your GHG inventory.
Once you know your carbon footprint you can:
- Quantify your organization’s carbon liability and offset what you can’t reduce.
- Incorporate carbon costs into decision-making.
- Identify cost savings opportunities.
- Assess regulatory risk.
- Engage customers and stakeholders.
- Create a competitive advantage.
- Exemplify environmental responsibility.
The Greenhouse Gas Protocol
The GHG Protocol is the most widely used international accounting tool for government and business leaders to understand, quantify, and manage greenhouse gas emissions.
LTS’s sustainability consultants are well versed on the Greenhouse Gas Protocol and can easily:
- Conduct a carbon footprint and create a GHG Protocol compliant report
- Conduct a verification of a carbon footprint for ISO-14064-3 compliance.
Carbon Offset Programs
Climate change and carbon reductions have become major drivers of individual purchasing decisions and important components of corporate responsibility programs. There are many third-party certifications that a company can achieve by reducing and offsetting 100% of their GHG emissions, putting their values into action and displaying this commitment to their customers. LTS partners with two of the top programs, and can be your company’s guide to achieving Carbonfree or Climate Neutral certification:
| Certification: | Carbonfree® Product Certification
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Climate Neutral Certification
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| Certifies: | A single product | An entire company/brand |
| Requirements: | 1) Perform a Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA) to determine the carbon footprint of your product(s)
2) Register and Certify your product as Carbonfree® 3) Offset the product’s carbon footprint quarterly, based on actual sales 4) Renew your product annually |
1) Measure: Perform a GHG inventory (Scopes 1, 2, and 3) of the company from the most recent calendar year, including products and services
2) Reduce: Develop a reduction action plan to reduce emissions over the next 12-24 months 3) Compensate: Purchase eligible verified carbon and clean energy credits equivalent to last year’s emissions 4) Renew your brand annually |
| Where LTS helps: | LTS will measure your GHG emissions as well as assist you in creating a reduction plan and purchasing third-party validated carbon offsets. LTS can provide verification services for your GHG inventory if you conduct it in-house or with another firm. | |
| More information: | https://carbonfund.org/carbonfree-product-certification/ | https://www.changeclimate.org/ |
Going Carbonfree® is not only good for the environment, it’s good for business. Studies have shown that it increases sales and market share, differentiates brand and product, improves customer loyalty and strengthens corporate social responsibility & environmental goals.