Climate change is a serious issue that requires action from everyone. However, the solutions and certifications are far less obvious. Nearly everything we do has carbon emissions associated with it, from turning on your computer to browsing the internet to ordering something from an e-commerce website. Carbon neutrality is all about countering those emissions, and certification is about proving you’re doing it.
What Is Carbon-Neutral Certification?
A carbon-neutral certification is proof, usually through a third party, that a company has offset the carbon emissions associated with its operations. The certification company calculates your carbon emissions and verifies that you’re paying for carbon offsets. Carbon offsets are investments in carbon capture (such as planting trees) or carbon reduction (such as building solar farms to replace coal plants). Certification companies will also help you identify ways to reduce the carbon emissions associated with your business operations.
How Do You Earn Carbon-Neutral Certification?
You can get certification for your company’s carbon neutrality by paying an organization that offers certificates. In this era of climate change awareness and action, there are dozens (if not hundreds) of companies that offer certification. Here are some examples, but we always recommend doing your own research:
The CarbonNeutral Protocol
With over 25 years of experience working on environmental efforts and a roster of companies they’ve worked with including Microsoft and Lime scooters, carbonneutral.com is the top name in certification.
The Change Climate Project
This nonprofit organization works with over 300 brands and has measured and mitigated over one million metric tons of CO2.
Ecocert (Climate Neutral Group)
This certification is only available for medium-sized or larger companies (so RicketyRoo would not fit), but Ecocert’s decades of experience and thorough approach to calculation, reduction, and offsetting make them a great choice.
Terrapass
This company doesn’t offer certification, but we had to shout them out because they were our choice for going carbon-neutral! If your company is small enough and your operations are lean enough that you think you can calculate your CO2e, you can turn to a company like Terrapass to buy carbon offsets. You won’t technically have a certification, but you can still show that you’ve put in the work to measure and offset your carbon footprint.
Why Does Certification Matter?
From a marketing perspective, certification is valuable as proof of trust that a company is committed to fighting climate change. That may sound cynical, but it’s important to show your clients and customers that your money is where your mouth is. It might even encourage your peers and competitors to get on your level with their own certification!
Certification is also important because it’s unbiased. It’s far more valuable when a trustworthy third party certifies that a company is reducing and offsetting CO2 than when that company claims it without proof.
Climate-Neutral Certification Matters, but the Work Matters More
Paying for offsets and demonstrating your commitment is great, but it’s even more important to reduce emissions. For the digital marketing work we do, that’s where green SEO comes in. If you need help with making your website greener or just want to learn more, drop us a line!
