With the urgency of reducing our carbon footprint becoming more visible by the day, it's great to see more and more brands making claims about their carbon reductions. As they do, credibility is key; these claims are only as powerful as our trust in them. Recognizing this, Swiss carbon finance consultancy South Pole recently launched updated versions of its Climate Neutrality and Renewable Electricity labels, used by companies to certify the validity of their claims in these areas. The updated labels make these certifications even more robust.
South Pole works with companies around the globe to provide carbon credits and other decarbonization strategies. In fact, Sustainable Brands partnered with South Pole to certify last month's New Metrics '18 conference in Philadelphia, which achieved both the Climate Neutrality and Renewable Electricity labels.
Sustainable Brands caught up with Charles Henderson, Corporate Climate Change Expert at South Pole, to learn more about the new labels and about new partnerships helping the organization scale its own impact.
South Pole offers Climate Neutrality labels for companies, products and events, as well as Renewable Electricity labels for companies and events, and has been providing this certification for many years.
While the 'penguin labels' have been a trusted choice for many of the previously mentioned big brands, we want to ensure that our labels continue to be best-in-class well into the future. This is why in the fall of 2018, our label criteria were critically reviewed and updated in order to align with new international standards and an evolving market.
| Label Name | Aligned with international standards | Boundary |
|---|---|---|
| Climate Neutrality labels (for companies and organisations) | ||
|
Closely aligned with PAS 2060 |
Covers emissions from company operations, but excludes emissions from products such as raw materials, use of products and end-of-life treatment of sold products. Investments, if relevant, should be assessed but does not need to be offset. |
|
Closely aligned with PAS 2060 |
Same scope as Climate Neutral Company but covering one site, for instance one facility or store. |
|
Closely aligned with PAS 2060 |
Covers emissions from a product's life- cycle |
|
Closely aligned with PAS 2060 |
Covers emissions from events, including the attendees |
|
Aligned with the CarbonNeutral Protocol |
Covers emissions from the organisation of an event, excluding the attendees. |
| Climate Neutrality labels (only for financial institutions) | ||
|
Closely aligned with PAS 2060 in many aspects. This label is only available for financial institutions |
Same scope as Climate Neutral Company but no GHG
footprinting of the Scope 3 category investments is required.
It is, however, mandatory to engage in climate-related work
in the portfolio, for example in Task Force on Climate-related
Financial Disclosure (TCFD) activities.
The label is an intermediary step to the Climate Neutral Company label for financial institutions. |
| Other climate action labels (no claim to climate neutrality) | ||
|
No | Covers any emissions that the reporting entity defines and offsets with South Pole-certified carbon credits |
|
Yes, RE100 |
Covers all electricity consumed |
To give you a practical example, relevant Scope 3 emissions — indirect emissions occurring in the value chain of a reporting company — now need to be considered and included in calculations. Companies will also need to set a GHG emission-reduction plan in order to earn the label under our new criteria.
Last but not least, we're very excited about the sleek design of our new labels! Always recognisable by our trademark penguin, of course.
Companies that decide to take serious climate action can demonstrate their ambition to their stakeholders by using our labels. We see many brands taking ambitious action on climate — but, in an era of trust and transparency, it might be hard for their clients and partners to verify those activities. In sustainability, as in other areas of everyday life, a trusted label can give orientation and guidance. When customers see the climate neutrality label with the penguin, they can review our transparent guidelines to understand exactly what that label means and be assured that South Pole has validated all claims made by the company using it.
The South Pole labels are closely aligned with international standards, such as PAS 2060, the leading international standard for demonstrating carbon neutrality, developed in 2014 by the British Standards Institution. The underlying greenhouse gas (GHG) accounting must follow recognised international standards such as the GHG Protocol or ISO 14064-1.
The principles of GHG Protocol provide the basis for achieving the South Pole Climate Neutrality and Renewable Electricity labels. In addition, and reflective of South Pole's commitment to long-lasting impact, the South Pole labels include the principle of 'Conservativeness and Continuity'. In essence, South Pole uses only conservative estimates and will ensure that the clients aim towards continual improvements in GHG accounting and reduction potential.
New Metrics is indeed a great example for our "Climate Neutral Event" and "Renewable Electricity" Labels! Sustainable Brands realizes that events have an environmental impact — but without meeting and exchanging ideas, we would not be able to further develop the important sustainability agenda. That is why we help event organisers measure, reduce and offset the carbon impact of their events.
For the Renewable Electricity label, we firstly defined the boundaries of the inventory. For New Metrics, this included all electricity consumption associated with the event, such as the use of light bulbs, A&V or delegates charging their phones. We then guaranteed that all (100 percent) electricity came from renewable sources by providing Renewable Energy Certificates, or RECs, for Sustainable Brands.
The Climate Neutrality label also starts by defining the boundaries of the GHG footprint that will be considered. For Climate-Neutral Events, those boundaries cover the planning, marketing and execution of the event, including emissions from transport and accommodation for both organisers and attendees. The GHG accounting covers the direct emissions from sources controlled and/or owned and operated by Sustainable Brands (Scope 1), indirect emissions from purchased electricity, heating and cooling (Scope 2) and indirect emissions from business travel (Scope 3). Scope 3 is normally the biggest part at international conferences, and the reason why we work with organisers and encourage them to share relevant information about the emissions associated with business travel. The quantified carbon footprint covers at least 95 percent of the emissions from the event.
In a second step, Sustainable Brands offset all remaining direct and indirect emissions by purchasing credits from our third-party-verified emissions-reduction projects that are in accordance with high quality standards, such as the Gold Standard, Verified Carbon Standard or the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism. Achieving these two labels is an important way of leading by example.
We're all about building, facilitating and joining purpose-led/results-based collaborations for impact — social and environmental. We are thrilled to join the distinguished group of specialists at The Purpose Collaborative with whom we share the same mission — to help businesses on their journey to becoming more sustainable and truly driven by their purpose. We look forward to working together to assist companies in communicating and developing, in practice, their social and environmental purpose in a way that inspires, safeguards environmental integrity, and drives marketplace success.
The piece was originally published on the Sustainable Brands website
