Carbon neutrality, Climate Neutral Certified, and net zero are all terms that revolve around greenhouse gases. Google any one of these and you’ll likely see the other two in your results. This post briefly covers these terms, how they’re different, and why that’s important in your life.
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Defining Carbon Neutral
Carbon neutral means that the amount of carbon dioxide you produce is balanced through reduction, offsetting, or removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
Everything you do, or that a company does, results in carbon emissions. Things like flying for business, driving to work, and even purchasing office supplies have a carbon footprint. And while each thing you do or buy has its own carbon footprint, all of those smaller footprints add up to make your whole carbon footprint. That is, all the carbon that your behavior, actions, routines, and purchasing habits are responsible for in a given period of time.
What does carbon neutrality have to do with you?
There are two common ways that carbon neutrality will likely have an impact on your life. One way is if you, yourself, are looking to become carbon neutral. The other way is if brands and companies you buy from are marketing their carbon neutral status. I’m going to talk briefly about how you can work towards carbon neutrality in the next section. Businesses don’t get their own section because really this whole article is about helping you understand these terms and processes so you can apply that knowledge to businesses you encounter.
You Want To Be Carbon Neutral
If you want to be carbon neutral, then there are several ways you can go about that. A major method for achieving carbon neutrality is through offsetting your carbon emissions. I have an entire post on carbon offsets. Read that post to learn about offsets, carbon footprint calculators, and more.
In addition to offsetting your carbon emissions, you could reduce activities, routines, and other things in your life that are responsible for carbon emissions. Reducing your carbon footprint can be done any number of ways but some examples would be to carpool to work, walk or bike wherever you can, buy local produce and goods, and invest in electric appliances and vehicles. All of those things will lower your carbon footprint and help you achieve carbon neutrality faster.
What is Climate Neutral Certified?
With more and more businesses working toward carbon neutrality, you’ve likely seen the Climate Neutral Certified symbol on some of the products you buy. Climate Neutral is a nonprofit that certifies that companies are working to reduce or eliminate their carbon emissions. I can’t put their logo in this post for trademark reasons but clicking this page features the certification process along with common questions. You’ll see the branding there as well.
Climate Neutral Certified seems to work similarly to the B Certified process. There is an initial step where brands calculate a carbon footprint estimate. The next step toward neutrality, according to Climate Neutral Certified, is carbon offsetting and buying carbon credits. And finally, the third and somewhat final step is to reduce. And by reducing they mean the company takes steps toward minimizing behavior that leads to carbon emissions.
Climate Neutral Certified does not require companies to make quantitative goals for the third step, but they “recommend” it. As far as accountability goes, Climate Neutral says they require brands to check in annual and report on their progress with goals. Company progress will show up on the company’s profile on Climate Neutral’s website.
Climate Neutral Certified Vs. Carbon Neutral
The difference between being Climate Neutral Certified and carbon neutral is big, and for a few good reasons. The language around the steps for Climate Neutral Certification seem to be a little relaxed. I’ll save my intense dissection of their wording for a brand review but how they word the process steps is still important. So let’s first look at what carbon neutral means.
In my post on carbon offsetting I talk about balancing the scales of emitting carbon and eliminating or avoiding future climate emissions. Climate neutral means that imaginary scale is in balance. So the carbon you or a company emits is exactly equal to the amount of carbon you pay to have removed from the atmosphere.
Climate Neutral Certified is a certification that says a company is working on balancing those scales. How much the company has worked is a little unclear, especially because Climate Neutral says the company only has to “show progress.” They don’t seem to set quantifiable limits on progress. So the criteria for their certification looks to be looser than, say, the Certified B Corporation criteria.
So to be carbon neutral is more of a status update, it’s a milestone in someone’s sustainable journey. Being Climate Neutral Certified is a mark of intent and progress, it does not make any definitive statement of where a company is in their sustainable journey.
Carbon Neutral Vs. Net Zero
The terms carbon neutral and net zero are used interchangeably pretty often. I’ve seen articles and informational websites define them as the same term and give them the same meaning. But, there is of course a difference.
At this point in the article, you already know what carbon neutral means. Carbon offsetting is an integral part of the carbon neutral process. The term net zero means that you, or another entity like a business, do not emit carbon. So there are no carbon emissions to even offset.
Net zero is the ultimate goal, while carbon neutrality is a path toward being net zero as you reduce carbon emissions in your life or business.
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If you’re interested in being carbon neutral then check out my post on carbon offsetting!
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