Save more carbon than you create to Go Climate Positive

You may say we are dreamers, but at Go Climate Positive, we believe in creating a world that is better for us, better for our children and better for the plants and animals we share this planet with. This is why we have built our program on the principle of creating "handprints".

A handprint is a contribution that makes a positive change in the world, that helps improve the lives of others – including helping to reduce someone else’s footprint

If our footprints are what we unavoidably take from the planet, our handprints are what we intentionally give back.

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

When your handprint is as big as your footprint, you have gone Carbon Neutral.

Going Carbon Neutral is a vital first step towards tackling the climate emergency, and if every government, business and individual goes carbon neutral by 2050 we will reach 'net zero' and achieve the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C. We are more ambitious than that, the faster and deeper we go with reducing the total amount of carbon in the atmosphere, the lower the impact of global warming will be. We are also realistic enough to know that not every government, business and individual will go carbon neutral.

Going Climate Positive means choosing to create more positive impacts on the climate than the negative ones you cannot avoid; it means saving more greenhouse gas emissions than you create; it means creating more handprints than footprints. To do this we have to look beyond our own boundaries to help our suppliers and customers reduce their emissions too.

If we do this, we can massively increase our positive impact on the climate by multiplying our efforts many times over. After all, once you have reduced your footprint to zero there is nowhere else to go, but there is no limit to the size of your handprint

We believe we can help create a better world, by creating more and more handprints, and that is what Go Climate Positive is all about.

“We see a world of abundance, not limits." - Michael Braungart & William McDonough

Creating handprints

We help you to create carbon handprints by helping others to reduce their emissions through:

Reusing or recycling materials and products

Every product and material we buy uses energy to make and transport to us which means it has its own carbon footprint. We call this the 'embedded carbon' of the things we buy. When we reuse or recycle materials and products we are saving some of this embedded carbon. The difference between the carbon produced by reusing or recycling compared with the embedded carbon of making a new product is called an 'avoided emission' and this counts as a carbon handprint.

It's not enough to simply make reusable or recyclable products, we can only claim a handprint when we take responsibility for making sure that it happens.

Developing and selling low-carbon products

Every product that we sell has the embedded carbon of the materials and processes we use to make it. Many products that we sell also create emissions during their life, from using energy, consuming materials or creating waste. If we can create and sell a product which has a lower lifetime carbon footprint than the alternative product, then the difference between these is an avoided emission and counts as a carbon handprint. Of course, your handprint multiplies with every product that you sell, so the more successful your business, the greater the size of your handprint.

Helping suppliers or customers to reduce their emissions

Usually, we need to work collaboratively to have the biggest impact, and we want to encourage you to help the businesses and people you are most closely connected with reduce their climate impact too. So, if you work with one of your suppliers or customers on a specific project that helps them to reduce their carbon footprint, by saving energy, consuming less material or reducing waste we will count the carbon saved as part of your handprint.

Introducing other businesses to the community

If we are going to reach the global goal of net zero by 2050 we need as many people in our boat, rowing with us, as we can possibly get. So, to encourage you to help other businesses start the journey towards climate positive, we will count any carbon reductions that businesses you have introduced to the community make as a part of your handprint.

You may ask, "Isn't this double counting?" and, if our goal was to add up all of the carbon footprints of our members to calculate a total, then you would be right.

Our goal, however, is to understand and increase the total impact of the actions that each member has taken towards tackling the climate emergency, because...

Our purpose is to tackle the climate emergency as quickly and as effectively as we can, with as many businesses as possible contributing towards this effort.

Why can't I just buy more offsets?

Offsetting is a great interim approach that allows us go Carbon Neutral immediately. However, to get to net zero by 2050 we will all have to reduce the amount of emissions we create. 

This is why we ask you to create handprints by helping others to reduce their emissions. Technically, we call these "avoided emissions". To start with, these "avoided emissions" reduce the amount of offsets you need to buy.

Then, once your avoided emissions become larger than the emissions you produce, you will earn your Climate Positive certificate.

"The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step" - Lao Tzu