Blackmores ISO Consultancy Service: The creators of isology®

Businesses looking to tackle their environmental impact will need to look at how they can reduce their carbon emissions and offset any remaining emissions to ensure that they reach Net Zero.

One of the most common ways businesses offset their emissions is through the purchasing of carbon credits that typically go towards planting trees or re-wilding.

However, there are a number of new emerging trends following on from the current commodification of nature, resulting in an attitude shift from businesses who are looking to get a lot more involved in the offsetting process.

We invited Luke Baldwin, Co-founder and CEO of Nature Broking, back onto the show to explain the latest trends in the carbon market.  

You’ll learn

• What are the latest trends in the carbon market?
• The importance of high integrity within carbon offsetting
• Looking for impactful solutions
• Why education around carbon offsetting is key for long-term sustainability commitment
• How buying carbon credits now can lead to significant savings

Resources

• Nature Broking
• Isologyhub

In this episode, we talk about:

[00:30] Join the isologyhub – To get access to a suite of ISO related tools, training and templates. Simply head on over to isologyhub.com to either sign-up or book a demo.

[02:05] Episode summary: Today Mel is joined by guest Luke Baldwin, Co-founder and CEO of Nature Broking, to discuss emerging trends in the carbon market that help businesses tackle their carbon offsetting.  

[02:50] What are the key trends in the Carbon Market  – As of 2024, Luke states the leading trends as:

• High Integrity
• Impactful solutions
• Education
• Purchase carbon credits now and save later

[04:10] High Integrity – There’s now a lot of carbon credits available and due to the nature of the unregulated carbon markets, it’s led to an increase in bad actors generating revenue in a bad way.

Once example of this is Kariba, a project in Zimbabwe that aimed to tackle deforestation, which was recently exposed in the Guardian and The New Yorker for having incorrect calculations. Credits purchased towards that programme were then called into questions and any associated companies were accused of greenwashing.

To avoid this, businesses are now putting a greater focus on high integrity solutions, which involves considerations such as:

• Are the credits durable? Will the carbon be stored long term?
• Are their significant CO2 benefits?
• Are the credits contributing anything besides just removing carbon? i.e. regenerative agriculture or woodland plantation

[06:20] Impactful Solutions: The carbon markets offers a lot of fantastic solutions and businesses are moving away from the quick commodification of those solutions, and are instead looking to really understand the impact of how they chose to offset their emissions.

It’s becoming more of a question of buying carbon credits that align with your values, whether this be social values or sustainability values.

They’re looking to invest in projects that will have a tangible outcome. Which is exactly what Nature Broking sets out to assist businesses with by tailoring bespoke solutions that adhere to their specific values.

[08:10] Education  – The need for more education around the carbon markets is crucial.

Luke remembers the quote “you can’t love what you don’t know”, which applies as how can a business truly invest in something that they don’t fully understand.

Sustainability is a mindset, and a cultural shift towards more sustainable practices starts with an education.

Carbonology uses an ISO framework, but also provide an education around the carbon reduction plan provided to inspire a mindset shift change towards sustainability.

[09:05] Blackmores experience – Blackmores have been implementing environmental and energy Standards for over 18 years, but it’s only been in recent years that we’ve seen a mindset shift in leadership towards sustainability.

While people may be aware of Standards such as ISO 14001 or B Corp, but may not be aware of other governance frameworks that can help businesses to manage their carbon footprint and carbon neutrality.

[10:20] Join the isologyhub – Don’t miss out on a suite of over 200+ ISO tools, templates and training, sign-up to become a member of the isologyhub  

[12:25] How can you make significant savings when purchasing carbon credits? – A lot of carbon solutions currently are very cost effective, in particualr forestry credits and carbon removal credits.

Some of the more technological ones such as direct air capture or bioenergy and carbon capture and storage can be more expensive now because the technology utilised is still so innovative and in it’s infancy. However, that will change in time.

 If you’re looking at building a carbon portfolio for your net zero journey, for example, say are going through a science based targets initiative and you’ve decided that you cannot avoid the 10% of remaining emissions your net zero journey and you need to buy carbon removals – you’re much better purchasing carbon removals now than in the future.

This is because there will be a supply shortage in future, especially when we see more enforced regulations come into play between 2030 and 2035. This will mean that the price of those carbon credits will rise significantly.

What may cost £20-£30 per tonne for carbon removal now may go up to anywhere between £100 – £150 per tonne!

So it’s worth investing in your carbon portfolio now, especially in the case of tree planting as those tress are going to take a while to grow and actually start storing carbon.

If you finance projects now, you will have already made an amazing impact from the start, and will potentially save yourself a lot of trouble and money in future by planning ahead.   

If You’d like to learn more about Nature Broking and their solutions, check out their website.

If you’d like to book a demo for the isologyhub, simply contact us and we’d be happy to give you a tour.

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This episode is the second of our 7-part mini-series explaining our Carbonology service, a 7 step methodology to help companies become Carbon Neutral.

We’re joined by our resident Carbonologist David Algar to talk through the second step of the Carbonology process, Quantify.

What does the Quantify Step entail?

Calculating your emissions : This will be carried out for Scope 1 2 and 3 emissions.

• Scope 1 refers to sources you own, and are direct emissions from combustion or fugitive emissions from systems that contain GHGs, so gases that have escaped from somewhere they shouldn’t have such as an AC system.
• Scope 2 are emissions from imported energy, this refers to electricity for most organisations but can also include steam, heating and cooling. For ISO 14064 and PAS 2060 you’ll need to quantify 100% of the Scope 1 and 2 emissions within boundaries
• Scope 3 refers to all other indirect emissions from sources you don’t own or necessarily have control over. For example business travel in vehicles your staff own. Scope 3 makes up the majority of emissions for most organisations and is generally more complex to gather data for.

What information do you need to quantify your emissions?

You’ll need to collect and process data. This can be:

• Activity or financial data on a specific source. Common examples include utilities bills, meter readings and expense reports for business travel or fright
• Interviews and surveys. For instance a survey to better understand how staff commute to work, or the proportion of staff that work from home.

Why is Transparency so important?

There are 6 key principles of ISO 14064, but one David is particularly mindful of is Transparency.

• Ultimately your work will be made publicly available, and not everyone may agree with your methods, but you’ll need to record all estimates, assumptions, exclusions, and uncertainties associated with your methods. As well as generally being good practice, being transparent allows the end user of the work you produce to make informed decisions with a reasonable degree of confidence.

So what’s the purpose of quantification?

As well as giving you a total footprint for a specific time period, calculating your carbon footprint will enable you to do a few things:

• Firstly you’ll be able to see what are the most emission-intense areas of your organisation, i.e. where the emissions are coming from, whether this is a specific location, or activity or even department

• Secondly, by using this information you will be able to prioritise the areas that need to have their emissions reduced. This will form the basis of your Carbon Footprint Management Plan which we will go into more detail on in the next few episodes.

What are the Outcome and Deliverables?

One outcome of this exercise is a GHG Inventory. This is a requirement of ISO 14064 and put simply, is a big list of categorised emission sources, and the specific GHGs they produce. Here you’ll also list all emission conversion factors you used to turn activity data into tonnes of specific GHGs.

Another useful outcome is that you’ll be able to instantly and credibly respond to any tenders that require you present green credentials. As we’ve mentioned in previous podcasts, in the UK it is now a requirement for most large public sector contracts for the tendering organisation to outline its emissions.

Being able to easily present your carbon footprint to a potential tender could help in winning new business, particularly if you’ve completed this in line with an international recognised standard

Join us next week as we move onto the next step, Commit.

If you need assistance with implementing ISO 14064, PAS 2060, or another standard – Contact us!

David Algar is also available for a free Carbonology consultation until the end of March – Book your slot Here

We’d love to hear your views and comments about the ISO Show, here’s how:

• Share the ISO Show on Twitter or Linkedin
• Leave an honest review on iTunes or Soundcloud. Your ratings and reviews really help and we read each one.

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Today, we’re joined by our resident Carbonologist David Algar to discuss SECR.

What is SECR?

SECR stands for Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting, it stemmed from The Companies Act (2006) which was updated in 2013 to require quoted companies to report annual emissions in their directors’ report.

In 2018, the regulations were updated and an additional disclosure requirement for quoted companies was brought in. They now require energy use and associated GHG emissions to be reported by quoted companies, as well as by large, limited liability partnerships (LLPs).

Why was it introduced?

To increase awareness of a business’ energy use and emissions and to encourage the introduction of initiatives to reduce energy usage.

To provide organisations with the relevant data to make informed decisions.

To help increase visibility to key decision makers who may not have been aware of how much carbon their organisation is producing.

Provides transparency on an organisation’s emissions and energy use to external stakeholders.

Is it applicable to you?

SECR reporting is designed to apply to all quoted companies in the UK, as well as unquoted companies and LLPs defined as ‘large’ under the Companies Act 2006.

To be defined as ‘large’ under the Companies Act and therefore qualify for SECR reporting they must meet 2 or more of the following criteria:

• Have a turnover of £36m or more.
• Have a balance sheet of £18m or more.
• Have 250 or more employees.

Who does it not apply to?

Low energy users, those using less than 40MWh per year.

If disclosing energy use data could inadvertently reveal sensitive information about your business, or seriously detrimental to the interests of your business.

Not all public bodies are required to report.

If your data would not be practical to obtain.

What needs to be included?

This is where it gets slightly more complex as this is where reporting guidelines specify what you must report depending on if you are a quoted company compared to a large unquoted or LLP.

Similarities (what everyone needs to report):

• Their energy use in kWh and GHG emissions in tonnes of CO2 equivalent.
• Scope 1 and scope 2 emissions you are responsible for and a subset of scope 3 emissions relating to transport.
• Methodologies, at least one intensity ratio and finally, everyone must report on energy efficiency improvements.

Differences:

• A key difference between quoted companies and the other two types is that quoted companies must reference their global Scope 1 and 2 emissions they are responsible for, and what proportion of their emissions comes from international sources.
• For unquoted companies and LLPs there is more of a focus on Scope 3 emissions. You will need to report on the energy and emissions associated with Scope 3 transport. This mainly refers to leased road vehicles and vehicles staff own but use for business purposes (grey fleet), but also covers larger vehicles such as ships, planes and trains if you have directly paid for the fuel yourself.

What are the benefits for your organisation?

You would have quantified a significant proportion of your emissions, which paints a good picture of where your largest emission sources are from.

You would have just taken one of the first steps towards achieving carbon neutrality.

SECR also helps provide greater transparency for investors and other stakeholders.

It also supports other reporting such as ESOS and the new requirement for businesses looking to obtain large government contracts to have a carbon reduction plan in place.

How can Blackmores help?

By quantifying your emissions for your reporting period, in the long term we can help quantify any remaining emissions that are not referred to in SECR, specifically any remaining Scope 3s

We can also help provide clarity on the definitions of each scope and the subcategories within them.

We have various templates that we have created and refined to help simplify the process.

We can produce the SECR report, meeting all the requirements of UK Environmental Reporting Guidance, and as well as the main SECR report, we can produce the summary of your Director’s Report.

We’d love to hear your views and comments about the ISO Show, here’s how:

• Share the ISO Show on Twitter or Linkedin
• Leave an honest review on iTunes or Soundcloud. Your ratings and reviews really help, and we read each one.

If you’d like further information on how we can help you with Carbon verification, SECR or Carbon Neutrality, check out our Carbonology Service.