Why go climate positive?

What does climate positive mean?

Climate Positive means going a step further than Carbon Neutral, by saving MORE greenhouse gas emissions than you are generating.

There are 2 ways you can do this:

1. By offsetting more than your carbon footprint.

This has the advantage of being quick and easy to do, and may be a good short term approach. However the amount we can achieve with this approach is limited because we will ultimately have to reduce the actual amount of carbon emitted to get to net zero.

2. To help other businesses and individuals to reduce their footprint by;

developing and supplying low-carbon products, which helps every one of your customers to lower their carbon footprint
working directly with your suppliers to reduce their emissions, which lowers not just your carbon footprint, but also the footprint of every other business they supply;
by ensuring that your products as well as your waste are reused or recycled, which reduces the huge emissions associated with landfill

We prefer the 2nd approach as it massively multiplies your efforts to reduce your carbon footprint and will help drive the overall reductions we need to achieve to get to net zero by 2050. We call these outcomes "avoided emissions", and going Climate Positive essentially means avoiding more emissions than your are producing.

To learn how we can help you go climate positive please click here.

What is a carbon handprint?

At Go Climate Positive we love to create handprints. A handprint is any contribution that makes a positive change in the world. If our footprints are what we unavoidably take from the planet, our handprints are what we intentionally give back.

So, if your Carbon Footprint represents the negative climate impact of the things that you do that contribute to global warming - your Carbon Handprint represents the beneficial effects of the things you do reduce global warming.

Another way of thinking about going climate positive is to think about creating more handprints than footprints.

After all, your footprint can only ever be reduced to zero – but there is no limit to the size of your handprint!

Why go beyond Carbon Neutral?

All the evidence points to the fact that right now, we are on a path for global warming to hit at least 3°C by the end of the century, yet we know that we need to limit it to 1.5 C and that to do this we need to reach net zero as a society by 2050. On top of this, if we add up all of the national commitments that countries made in the Paris agreement this will not get us even below 2°C.

This means that we all need to move further and faster. There are two approaches we can take:

We can sit back and wait for the government to tell us what to do;
Or we can take responsibility and aim to go further than carbon neutral by removing more even carbon from the atmosphere than we are taking out.

This is what going Climate Positive really means – it means making a commitment to punching above our weight and compensating not just for our own emissions, but the emissions of others.

There are good, sound business reasons to do this

1. The climate emergency is a huge risk to your business

Sound, long-term business management would suggest that do what you can reasonably and affordably do to reduce that risk. There is plenty you can do now that meets both those criteria.

2. The legal and economic framework is changing

In April 2020, the SECR regulations came into force, requiring all large businesses to include a carbon footprint in their annual return.
In June 2020, the UK government announced its “race to zero”, challenging businesses to commit to net zero by the end of 2020.
In 2019 the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said, “carbon taxes are the most powerful and efficient means of decarbonising economies”
Carbon Tax looks set to arrive in the near future. In April 2019, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial strategy calculated we may need a carbon price of £80 per tonne by 2030.
The need for the government to fund the huge borrowing it has made to tackle the Covid pandemic means it will be looking for new ways to increase it’s income.
There is pressure from industry. In June 2020, 207 leading businesses sent a letter to the government asking them to prioritise 'green' solutions in the economic recovery.

3. Customer expectations are changing

The consumer reaction to the way businesses have responded to the pandemic has shown that they reward those businesses who they see getting involved in solving problems. Survey after survey shows that people and businesses want to buy green. They want to buy from businesses taking our environmental problems seriously.

4. Supercharge your efforts

Going climate positive will supercharge your efforts to reduce carbon and will communicate your commitment to the environment far more effectively than any marketing plan.

"You unleash the creativity of an organization, when you hold up a vision that is so outrageous, that it takes the breath away." - Ray Anderson

Make a start today with a FREE Carbon Footprint review

If you would like to learn more about how to calculate your carbon footprint, we would be delighted to give you a free carbon footprint review in which we will:

Estimate the carbon footprint of your business
Work out where your biggest carbon reduction opportunities are likely to be
Suggest what your next steps might be

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