Offsetters� Carbon Neutral Product Program

This June, Unilever announced that it would be putting carbon labels on all 70,000 of its products. Companies like Max Burgers, Adidas, and Allbirds have also been in the news for similar programs. Seeing companies like Unilever take this leap forward paints a promising picture for the future of corporate transparency. If we want any hope of effectively tackling the climate crisis through our global supply chains, consumers must be given access to the information they need to be active participants in change.

Some companies, like Unilever, are self-implementing internal carbon neutrality and labelling schemes. However, the process required to effectively implement these types of labelling schemes can require extensive additional resources, funding, and high-level expertise. At Offsetters, we recognize that not all businesses have the capacity or resources to tackle these types of initiatives alone. As an organization that has been providing advisory services in climate solutions for over 15 years, we are committed to helping organizations implement effective and realistic solutions for their business.

We created our Carbon Neutral Product Program for exactly this purpose.

Offsetters’ Carbon Neutral Product Program is led by a team of climate solutions experts made of engineers, carbon management specialists, project managers, and analysts. We support companies with their product labelling needs by examining the climate and carbon impacts of a product’s lifecycle. Measuring the carbon footprint of any product is about more than just the emissions released from the manufacturing process. To gauge a complete understanding of a product’s real climate impact, our Carbon Neutral Product Program examines product emissions through an in-depth and science-based Life Cycle Analysis (LCA).

An LCA examines the environmental impacts of a product over the course of its existence—this is most often examined as the impact from cradle-to-gate (emissions from raw material extraction to the point of purchase) and from cradle-to-grave (from raw material extraction to product disposal). Companies that are part of the circular economy instead use a cradle-to-cradle approach; in that case, the end stage is always a recycling or reuse phase, rather than disposal.

The graphic above outlines what a linear product lifecycle typically looks like. Phases 4 and 5 tend to be areas that businesses struggle the most to measure, but accounting for these indirect emissions is critical to paint a full picture of a product’s climate impacts. 

Offsetters tailors individual LCAs for the product and label that a business is looking for. We offer three levels of carbon labelling, Climate Friendly, Carbon Neutral, and Climate Positive. Businesses who pursue these climate labels are also given expert guidance on high quality third-party verified carbon offset purchasing options from our various carbon offset projects for sale online. If you are a business considering the climate impact of your products, connect with us about your carbon labelling options. Our Client Engagement team can walk you through what these mean and what steps your business would need to successfully start labelling your products.

Our product labelling program allows our clients to choose the level of commitment they are ready to make towards implementing real solutions for the climate impact of their products.

Our Carbon Product Labels

Climate Friendly

Our Climate Friendly Product label identifies products that have undergone at least a cradle-to-gate LCA and whose resulting emissions have been completely offset through carbon offset purchases. Companies may also get the Climate Friendly logo if they have offset at least 25% of the product’s emissions resulting from a cradle-to-grave assessment.

 

Carbon Neutral

Our Carbon Neutral Product label identifies products that have undergone a cradle-to-grave LCA and whose resulting emissions have been completely offset through reductions and carbon offset purchases. Companies with these product logos have made an effort to avoid as many emissions as possible and have offset those remaining—reducing their overall product footprint to net-zero.

 

Climate Positive

A Climate Positive Product goes a step beyond carbon neutral. After completing an LCA, these products’ total emissions have been offset completely, plus an additional 10% of emissions as a commitment to creating a positive and lasting impact on the environment.

 

 

How we help businesses offset their supply chain

One of our Carbon Neutral Product clients is BC utility services provider, Fortis BC. We worked with Fortis to measure the impact of their bio-methane gas offerings. Fortis participated in our Carbon Neutral Product program by working with our Advisory Services team to complete a cradle-to-grave Life Cycle Assessment for its Renewable Natural Gas offering and offset the total impact of these emissions. Fortis’ Renewable Natural Gas is now designated as a Carbon Neutral Product.

Like our work with Fortis BC, the Offsetters team works with business to understand, reduce, and offset the impact of their products; making an otherwise lengthy and technical process, easy, hands free, and guided by experts in the field.