Carbon management is a broad term encompassing everything from reducing energy usage to buying offsets. But if you’re like most businesses, carbon management may seem like yet another added expense rather than an opportunity to make real change.
Well, guess what? There’s money in it for you—and your bottom line could even get stronger due to the improved efficiency of your operations and products. If you’re ready to revolutionize how your company manages carbon emissions, read on for some best practices that can help keep costs down while driving profits up.
Measure and publicly disclose your carbon emissions
Measurement and disclosure are essential to managing your carbon footprint. Measuring your emissions allows you to understand where they occur, why they occur, and how much of an impact they have on the environment. If you don’t know what’s happening with your carbon emissions, it will be extremely difficult for you to make changes that reduce them.
Disclosing your carbon footprint also helps drive change in the business world by encouraging other companies to measure their emissions and improve sustainability practices. This is especially important since most companies do not currently measure their carbon footprint or disclose it publicly—a statistic that has led some researchers to refer to these businesses as “high emitters.”
Develop a long-term carbon emissions reduction strategy
Set goals for reducing your carbon emissions and then reduce emissions from your operations. You can reduce the amount of energy used to power your offices and factories, or switch to renewable energy sources like solar or wind power. You can also cut back on unnecessary waste by using recycled materials in products and packaging, recycling leftover product components at the end of their lifecycle (like tires), and avoiding excessive packaging materials.
You can also reduce customer-related carbon emissions through promotion campaigns encouraging customers not just about how great it feels but also about how much money they save each month when buying energy efficient appliances.
Use energy efficiently, with aggressive targets to reduce energy costs
In your business, the most effective way to manage carbon emissions is to use energy more efficiently. Energy efficiency can be achieved by making sure that all of your operations are running at optimal levels and monitoring them closely so they don’t get out of control. Achieving this level of efficiency will not only reduce your costs but also improve overall productivity, which is an important benefit for any business.
Buy offsets to compensate for remaining emissions beyond the point of operational control
When you’re at the point of operational control, your goal should be to minimize or avoid emissions. However, if you can’t eliminate all of your business’s carbon footprint and still want to go green, offsetting is a way to compensate for remaining emissions beyond the point of operational control. There are many ways a company can offset its carbon footprint, including investing in renewable energy or planting trees on public lands. Just keep in mind that offsetting isn’t a substitute for reducing your carbon footprint; it’s just another tool in your arsenal (and one that may become more important than ever as climate change continues).
Conclusion
The good news is that there are many low-cost ways for your company to reduce its carbon footprint. With carbon management on the rise and more companies looking to reduce their footprint, businesses need to make sure they’re doing everything they can to reduce their environmental impact. Even if you don’t have a large carbon footprint today, many small changes can make a big difference over time.
