Greenwashing, the practice of misleading your customers about the ethical advantages of your product, looks set to become a thing of the past following the launch of the Carbon Trust’s new ‘Carbon Trust Standard’ certification programme.
The standard will only be awarded to businesses who ‘have made genuine reductions in their carbon emissions’.
Unfortunately, the Trust fails to quantify exactly what constitutes ‘genuine reductions’ – does it apply to those who make sure they switch their printer off at the weekend, or do you have to have invested in green technology? What if you’ve forgotten to change one of your tungsten light bulbs to the energy saving variety? Will you be penalised then? And what about toilets? Is there a specific amount of flushing which will render your business exempt?
Ok, I’m being obsequious – of course, any scheme which encourages the reduction of carbon emissions is a good one. But the part which concerns me is the ‘no offsetting’ clause. According to the Trust, you’re not allowed to include carbon offsetting as part of the scheme. It all has to be reduction – no offsetting.
I can see where they’re coming from – in the past, offsetting has often been used as a way to ease the conscience.
‘It’s ok,’ business leaders up and down the country have proclaimed. ‘I know chartering this private jet to fly me from Bristol to London/leaving the air conditioning on all weekend so the office is cool on Monday/buying bottled water which has been passed through the hair of a Fijian princess and mingled with the freshly wept tears of a phoenix just risen from the ashes is bad, but I’ve paid for some trees to be planted near Milton Keynes, so it’s fine.’
Of course, that’s not true: if carbon is still being put into the atmosphere, there’s still going to be an increase in emissions. Presumably, that’s why The Carbon Trust is banning offsetting.
But, when I spoke to Julie Gartside, an environmental consultant at Enviros, recently, she told me offsetting can work – as long as you have already reduced your emissions as much as possible. “Reduce first, then offset. It gets bad press because some people don’t do the first bit,” she told me.
“It’s often seen as just a way to reduce guilt, and that’s not what we want to say – we just don’t want people to use it as an excuse mechanism.”
As with all arguments, there are two sides – but I’m convinced that, as long as you make sure you use a reputable scheme and ensure you’ve reduced your emissions as much as possible, offsetting can be an effective way of making your business that bit more eco-friendly.
