Why Carbon Offset? || Rob Gell

Rob Gell, Executive Director, ReThink Sustainability. Why carbon offset?

Many people are looking for ways to help manage the climate crisis we all face.

Farmers in particular observe changes in climate that are critical to long term farm management and to maintaining productivity. Understanding the issue, many are developing new techniques for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in production cycles. Businesses are also beginning to understand that their contribution to reducing climate changing emissions through operations not only reduces costs but offers an opportunity for product differentiation in competitive markets. Consumers are increasingly aware of their purchasing power and becoming more discerning about the products they purchase. Many identify and preferentially purchase products that demonstrate reduced impact on the global climate.

Sustainability is being assessed at all levels in the production, manufacturing, marketing and retailing, consumption continuum. Major food companies and organisations are working to improve the sustainability of the food industry by reducing waste, improving packaging and responding to consumer demand for healthier choices. Regenerative and organic agriculture provides an opportunity for companies to move their products and supply chains from being carbon-emitters to being part of a solution that fights climate change, maintains biodiversity while supporting farmers and building more resilient agriculture systems . Increasingly standards are being set and measurement and monitoring programs are being initiated to ensure that production processes deliver emissions reduction targets to meet global emissions reduction targets under the Paris Agreement.

‘Carbon-neutral’, ‘net-zero’ or ‘climate-neutral’?

These terms all reflect a desire to reduce an organisation’s impact on the climate and are in effect an alternative version of a target. A carbon-neutral target relates to carbon dioxide only, whereas a ‘net-zero’ goal includes all greenhouse gases, and a ‘climate-neutral’ goals extends to other effects such as radiative forcing . As a first positive step on the journey towards net zero emissions, a ‘carbon neutral’ goal is a strategy to reduce net emissions by purchasing carbon offsets in tree-planting or soil carbon projects, energy efficiency or renewable energy projects to reach a carbon-neutral target immediately. This requires measurement of your organisation’s emissions to determine how many offsets or ‘credits’ you need to purchase to become ‘carbon neutral’. Your emissions profile includes emissions from vehicles and company facilities and indirect emissions from purchased electricity and gas for heating and cooling. This can be extended to include emissions from upstream activities such as waste, transportation, travel and downstream activities such as processing, use and treatment of sold products .

The important ‘first step’.

Before you ‘jump in’ to installing solar panels to reduce your dependence on fossil-fuel energy or purchase credits to offset your entire emissions profile you should minimise your operational demand on energy use. This energy efficiency assessment will identify where your emissions can be minimised and you can save money too. An energy management framework provides for a sequenced approach to an understanding of your energy use and includes contracting, monitoring, efficiency, generation and storage opportunities. To start the process ReThink Sustainability offers a no cost, no obligation, retailer obligation service which will confirm whether or not you are currently paying the lowest available cost contracts for energy provision (electricity and gas).

The process is managed by accessing the website: www.leadingedgeenergy. com.au/rethink-sustainability

If a better contract is available a new contract option will be communicated to you for your consideration. Energy monitoring tools such as carbonTRACK are relatively inexpensive and are particularly valuable if solar energy generation and storage is employed. A range of technologies are now available that will deliver significant energy efficiency improvements in normal use and subsequent costs reductions. Retrofitting with LED lights typically deliver a 40- 60 % energy saving. Retrofit of refrigeration compressors with Variable Speed Drives typically delivers an operational energy/cost saving of 30 - 60%. Depending on a facility’s requirements, retrofitting with improved efficiency hot water units can deliver considerable savings of approximately 50%. After energy demand is understood a photovoltaic solar installation should be considered together with battery storage to provide valuable flexibility. So the mantra “reduce what you can, offset the rest” applies. Shrink your impact then offset what’s left.

Introducing The Eco-Credit™

ORICoop brings together these different components and offers the Eco-credit™ as an opportunity to offset your carbon footprint to become carbon neutral, directly benefiting organic and regenerative farmers. The Eco-Credit™ utilises the organic certification audit process as its basis and in doing so values farmland, biodiversity, nature and wildlife as environmental assets, while assessing the natural capital footprint of the overall agricultural production system. Importantly Eco-Credits provide the opportunity to promote and transition the uptake of organic farming to agriculturalists, organic products to consumers and directly connects businesses to farmland and farmers by enabling investment in organic farms (via the EcoCredit) to offset greenhouse gas emissions for business. Farmers can benefit from the value of their natural capital value by implementing fundamental and sustainable principles of organic agriculture, and measuring them! To improve productivity and address ecological outcomes and parameters, while restoring and improving the surrounding landscape for long term and mutual benefit.

Using global natural capital accounting standards[1] [2] farmers can capture the value of existing and future investments that have been undertaken to maintain and improve their natural capital. Through standardised accounting metrics, these records then provide validity to the businesses that are interested in their carbon, biodiversity and water footprints, and also in the wider view of ecological and natural capital preservation and restoration. See our next edition for further information and the first case studies of existing organic farmers involved in the Eco-Credit.

Hungry for more ||

Watch out for further details about this ground breaking concept that brings together businesses, farmers, the land and our communities for the better. You can register for Eco-Credit here.