The Shining Earth® Beyond Carbon Neutral Standard

‘Beyond Carbon Neutral’ is the Shining Earth^® seal of approval awarded to products, services, events, departments or whole organisations that:

·         Measure their carbon emissions;

·         Commit to make tangible reductions to their environmental impact; and

·         Offset over 150% of the remaining identified CO₂eq emissions. 

Shining Earth^® recognises the frustrations felt by many organisations that want to understand and reduce their carbon emissions but find that undertaking a full ‘life-cycle analysis’ carbon footprint certified to PAS 2050, (which is a specification for the assessment of the life cycle greenhouse gas emissions of goods and services), or an organisational footprint to the ISO14064-1 standard to be too costly, time consuming and so commercially impractical to achieve.

The Shining Earth^® Beyond Carbon Neutral standard responds to these challenges by evaluating  the most significant areas of energy consumption where data is most readily available and pursuing meaningful reductions in these areas first.  Being the most significant areas of emissions means that reductions are typically easier to achieve.  The remaining energy use and associated carbon footprint is then established including a conservative estimate for those items where accurate energy and carbon data just isn’t readily available. The entire calculated carbon footprint is then offset by at least 150% to provide a conservative approach and confidence that the subject of the assessment is Beyond Carbon Neutral. 

Beyond Carbon Neutral follows the principles of the guidelines set out in PAS 2060, which is a ‘Specification for the demonstration of carbon neutrality’ of an identified subject, coupled with defensible carbon offsetting, Beyond Carbon Neutral can be applied to a specific part of an organisation, product, activity, building, development or event. 

Achieving the Shining Earth^® Beyond Carbon Neutral standard clearly demonstrates your company’s commitment to reducing energy usage and acting as a responsible corporate citizen to tackling carbon related challenges by mitigating the identified emissions. 

If the longer term goal is to achieve overall carbon neutrality in line with PAS 2060 and carbon footprints in accordance with ISO14064 or PAS 2050, your business can build up to this position at a commercially viable timescale to suit your own circumstances.

By establishing clear, concise and defensible boundaries, Shining Earth^® can deliver cost-effective carbon footprinting, without extensive calculations and the associated cost of time.  

Shining Earth^® works with your organisation to become Beyond Carbon Neutral by measuring and  reducing emissions through simple, practical and cost effective means and then offset the remaining emissions through a wide variety of appropriately certified carbon reduction and renewable energy schemes.  Offset schemes currently available include Methane Capture and Hydro-electrical Power, as well as carbon sequestration through tree planting to create ‘Woodland Carbon’ in the UK.

Our objective is to avoid lengthy technical research with little commercial value, but instead to quickly evaluate the most significant areas of impact and opportunity and present that data in a clear and concise manner with practical and commercially viable recommendations to save money, reduce carbon emissions and raise the profile of the organisation.   

For further information or to talk to one of our specialists please contact us here.