What does carbon neutrality mean?
Whatever we do in life, be it working, travelling, consuming products and services or providing them, one thing is certain: in both our private and professional lives we produce CO2 emissions which affect the world's climate. As it is impossible to prevent all emissions, it was necessary to find a way of offsetting these unavoidable emissions.
Trees, for example, are an efficient global CO2 store. They need CO2 to grow and absorb it from the atmosphere, store it in the form of wood, then release oxygen instead. Thus the world's forests are also its lungs.
If we calculate our carbon footprint, that is the amount of emissions that result from the production of goods and services, from processes, business trips and energy consumption, then it is possible to plant the corresponding number of trees required to absorb the emitted CO2. As CO2 is not confined to national boundaries, where it originates from and where it is offset is unimportant.
This means it is possible to render these products, services and lifestyle choices "carbon neutral".
On the one hand, emissions are produced, but on the other, CO2 is reduced, thus the emissions are offset. Supporting reforestation projects is one way of reducing CO2, while other options include supporting projects that avoid CO2 emissions such as solar or hydroelectric power stations in place of coal-fired power stations.
The detail:
Greenhouse gases at location A can be balanced out (offset) by undertaking additional climate protection measures at location B. This is done by retiring (giving up or cancelling) ecologically valuable carbon credits from recognized and verified climate protection projects.
Thus rather than "buying" the right to carry on producing emissions, utilising carbon credits is a way of actively supporting measures that directly protect the climate.
carbon-connect AG primarily supports forest protection and reforestation projects.
Before carbon offsetting can take place, leading to carbon neutrality or partial carbon neutrality, the carbon footprint of an activity must be established. This footprint is a detailed calculation of the level of CO2 emissions produced by specific processes, services, or an entire company. Once the carbon footprint has been calculated, the number of carbon credits required to offset these emissions can be determined.
carbon connect undertakes this calculation for companies (Corporate Carbon Footprint), for products (Product Carbon Footprint) and for all types of processes.
Thus achieving carbon neutrality is a highly efficient and important way of combating climate change.