1
October 2008; INFO 337 - Learning from the
Carbon Neutral Public Service Programme
- The Ministry for the Environment, through
its role in centrally coordinating the Carbon
Neutral Public Service (CNPS) programme,
and providing advice on business opportunities
created by climate change, is often asked
for guidance on how best to effectively
manage organisational carbon emissions.
This factsheet is intended to provide a
simple response to such queries.
What it will do:
Provide guidance to New Zealand businesses
on what they can do now to manage their
carbon emissions.
Explain how the Carbon
Neutral Public Service programme leads by
example in providing a best-practice response
to carbon management and mitigation; and
the tools for other public and private sector
agencies to follow that example.
What it will not do:
Attempt to give detailed answers to complex
policy questions regarding project offset
creation under a compliance scheme within
New Zealand.1
The Carbon Neutral Public
Service programme aims to lead by example
by centrally coordinating the measurement,
reduction, and offsetting of the carbon
emissions of the 34 core central government
agencies in New Zealand.
More information can
be found at: http://www.mfe.govt.nz/issues/sustainability/public-service-carbon-neutrality.html
It is important to note
the difference between carbon management,
and carbon neutrality. The latter is a more
absolute target, generally embarked upon
by those wishing to claim carbon neutrality
for their product or service for marketing
or public relations reasons.
It is essential that any carbon management
exercise be carried out within a wider sustainability
programme. Carbon management in itself is
not the be-all and end-all of sensible environmental
practice; all parts of an organisation’s
operations and strategy should be analysed
to consider its long-term ecological viability
and impacts.
Carbon management, as
with any environmental sustainability strategy,
is about influencing behaviour change. You
should start by assessing your organisation’s
carbon footprint, then identifying and implementing
actions to reduce that footprint in an ongoing
manner.
Measuring your organisation’s
carbon footprint can seem a complicated
and time-consuming task. But we have had
overwhelming feedback that those who have
gone through the process feel that they
have a much better understanding of their
business processes, and in doing so, have
identified cost-saving measures across the
organisation.
The Greenhouse Gas Protocol2
defines best-practice methodology in measuring
your business’s carbon footprint. The Ministry
for the Environment has developed New Zealand-specific
guidance on measuring greenhouse gas emissions,
including emissions factors, available at
http://www.mfe.govt.nz/publications/climate/guidance-greenhouse-gas-reporting-apr08/index.html.
Simply put, the steps towards measurement
are:
Select a base year
It is important you choose a base year that
has complete and robust data.
Define the scope of your emissions
There are two categories of emissions generated
in the course of conducting business:
direct emissions – those that are generated
from on-site production or direct combustion
of fossil fuels through owned facilities,
vehicles and equipment
indirect emissions – which are divided into
two categories called Scope 2 (electricity
consumption) and Scope 3 (other indirect
sources). Scope 2 emissions are generated
through the consumption of electricity (kWh)
to light and power offices and operations.
Scope 3 includes business travel, employee
commuting, and outsourced activities.
Define your organisational
boundary
The Greenhouse Gas Protocol provides two
methods for defining organisational boundaries
and therefore what should be included in
your inventory. Organisational boundaries
can be set using either an equity or control
approach. Using the equity method you account
for the percentage of GHG emissions as a
percentage of your ownership. Using the
control approach you account for all GHG
emissions if you have "operational"
or "financial" control of the
company, subsidiary, or facility.
Having identified your
business’s carbon footprint, or emissions
inventory, you can now implement changes
which will reduce your emissions over time.
Examples of such reduction activities can
be found across the 34 core government agencies
under the CNPS programme; all 34 agencies
have publicly released their 2006/2007 emissions
inventories and reduction plans. See, for
example, the Ministry for the Environment’s
reduction plan at: http://www.mfe.govt.nz/publications/sus-dev/carbon-neutral-public-service-reduction-plan-apr08/,
or the Ministry of Economic Development’s
reduction plan at: http://www.med.govt.nz/templates/StandardSummary_34456.aspx
Claiming carbon neutrality
You may wish to take the further step to
be able to claim carbon neutrality. There
is no internationally-accepted definition
of what ‘carbon neutrality’ means, but it
is generally understood to involve the following
steps:
measure your emissions
(as above, according to ISO14064 and the
GHG Protocol)
reduce those emissions as much as is cost
effectively possible, and
offset the residual emissions through investment
in credible and verifiable offsets or offset
credits.
The validity of any carbon neutrality programme
depends on the credibility of the offsets
purchased under the third stage of the above-mentioned
process. Investment in tree-planting projects,
for instance, may have positive environmental
benefits, but will not constitute a carbon
offset credit until, and unless, the carbon
abatement as a result of that project has
been quantified and verified.
The definition of a
quality offset credit (according to United
Nations’ rules under the Clean Development
Mechanism) is one which has been verified
real, additional and permanent.
Choosing your offsets
You may choose to invest in offsets available
under either the compliance (or mandatory)
carbon market, or the voluntary carbon market.
Investment in voluntary market credits (such
as Voluntary Emission Reductions or Voluntary
Carbon Units) cannot be counted towards
New Zealand’s Kyoto Protocol obligation
or liability. The CNPS programme has chosen
to invest in domestic carbon abatement projects
and credits only.
It is vital that you
are transparent as to the type of credits
you have invested in, and the reasons behind
that decision.
Blanket “green” claims
should not be made unless they are true,
verified, and accurate. For example, if
you have paid to offset the manufacturing
operations of your business only, be clear
on exactly that, rather than claiming you
are a “carbon neutral” company, or produce
“carbon neutral” products. For further advice
on what consitutues a valid “green” claim,
please contact the Commerce Commission Fair
Trading Branch.
The quantification of
those emissions already considered “carbon
neutral” within your supply chain can be
tricky and requires careful consideration.
Our advice is to carefully consider your
supplier’s “green” claims against your own
methodology, and account for them accordingly.
For example, if your company has decided
to invest in only New Zealand-based compliance
offsets, and one of your suppliers claims
carbon neutrality because they have invested
in offshore voluntary credits, you should
consider whether (or how) to account for
that proportion of your emissions profile
within your own carbon neutrality claim.
Verifying your carbon
neutrality
You may choose to have your carbon neutrality
claims verified and certified by a third-party
verification agency, such as the carboNZero
programme3, SGS Ltd4, or Offset the Rest5,
for example.
Offsets purchased towards
carbon neutrality should then be retired,
or cancelled, within a registry, so that
you can be sure they are not on-sold to
another buyer. Carbon registries (such as
the NZEUR, TZ16 or Regi7) provide reassurance
to purchasers of credits that their offsets
have not been double-counted.
For further information and guidance, please
contact the Ministry for the Environment
Some useful links may
be found at:
The Greenhouse Gas Protocol
at www.ghgprotocol.org
The Ministry for the Environment’s Guidance
for Voluntary, Corporate Greenhouse Gas
Reporting, at http://www.mfe.govt.nz/publications/climate/guidance-greenhouse-gas-reporting-apr08/index.html
New Zealand Business Council for Sustainable
Development guidance, at http://nzbcsd.org.nz/emissions/content.asp?id=432
Getting to zero: defining corporate carbon
neutrality, at www.forumforthefuture.org.uk/node/4190
TZ1’s Beginners’ guide to the voluntary
carbon market: Q&A, at http://www.nzx.com/asset/TZ1Beginnersguide_VCM.pdf
The Carbon Trust three stage approach to
developing a robust offsetting strategy,
at http://www.carbontrust.co.uk/publications/publicationdetail?productid=CTC621
Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority’s
EnergyWise programme: http://www.energywise.org.nz/
This is also available as a PDF Managing
Organisational Carbon Emissions (September
2008) (PDF, 119 KB)
1. This may form the
basis of a later factsheet, however.
2. The Greenhouse Gas
Protocol (GHG Protocol) is the most widely
used international accounting framework
for government and business leaders to understand,
quantify, and manage their emissions. It
was developed by a broad international coalition
of businesses, non-governmental organisations,
government and inter-governmental organisations
to proactively define a uniform approach.
3. More information
may be found at www.carbonzero.co.nz/
4. More information
may be found at www.climatechange.sgs.com/carbon_neutrality_label_climatechange.htm
5. More information
may be found at www.offsettherest.com/
6. More information
may be found at www.tz1market.com/registry.php
7. More information
may be found at www.regi.co.nz/regPublic/registry.mt_public.home
