When the world is looking for people to blame for climate change, they often point their fingers to the private sector. For years now, reducing carbon emissions has been the goal of every company, but not everyone is seeing encouraging results.
The question now is, how can companies start completing a task? How can you measure progress? As Peter Drucker would put it, anything that gets measured can also get managed.
If companies really want sustainability, they should understand the current environmental status. To help them with that, they need help from carbon monitoring systems like Thomson Environmental Systems.
It is not easy to measure carbon emission. Most companies, even the bigger ones, do not have their carbon measuring systems. Plus, reducing programs also became an exception to the general rule. Then again, companies like BP, Shell, Facebook, and even Apple all submit a report on their respective carbon emissions. They do this because their respective CEOs are proactive about caring for the environment.
Less carbon emission means lesser cost
Quantifying and identifying the level of carbon emissions help determine the excessive use of energy within the system. It also identifies other inefficiencies in the company’s operation. By lowering GHG emissions, you also increase the company’s efficiency and the cost-effectiveness of its processes.
Through its GHG emissions, Walmart was able to identify that they were, in fact, spending too much energy in cooling and heating their buildings. As a consequence of the findings, they started installing approximately 10,000 high-efficiency cooling and heating units. In the end, these units allowed them to avoid around 614,000 tons of CO2 annually. It allowed the company to save more than €8 million.
Carbon market access
Aside from internal savings and cost reductions, companies all around the globe are made to pay a price for every ton of carbon they emit. This system is dubbed as the carbon emission trading system.
In the global carbon trading market, there are 57 widely implemented pricing systems for carbon. Twenty-eight of these pricing systems are in the Emission Trading System (ETS) form, and the remaining 29 in carbon taxes. Between the years 2018 and 2018, the value of carbon dioxide traded in the global markets soared to 250%, setting an all-time high record of €144 billion. In the ETS, the maximum number of CO2 in tons are converted into allowances. Companies can buy or sell their allowances based on their emission levels.
In the carbon tax format, they set a specific price you need to pay equivalent to your carbon emission. Since there are two pricing systems, companies are forced to measure their carbon emissions. This time, lowering and monitoring your carbon emission is no longer just an obligation, but an excellent opportunity for you to get ahead of the competition. If you are still not measuring your carbon emissions, now is the right time to invest in a monitoring system like the Thomson Environmental Systems.
Transparency in business is the new black
Companies are also very proactive in measuring their carbon emissions because it affects their brand image. Individual or institutional customers care about the companies and people they do business with.
Sustainable conscience is not only a trend, but it is also on the rise as a corporate value. More than half of the global consumers agree that an ethical purchase can make a huge difference. They are now looking for ways to limit, lower, or eradicate collective carbon footprint. They minimize waste, choose green products, and subscribe to the services of companies that are environmentally-friendly.
Investing in a carbon emission measuring system is like hitting two birds with one stone. You gain the confidence of your target market, and you make this world a little bit better for future generations.
