What is Carbon Neutrality?
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It is an eco-efficiency strategy that seeks to implement and sustain a clean production model over time by managing greenhouse gas emissions.

To achieve Carbon Neutrality the organization must measure, reduce and offset the organizational carbon footprint.

The first step to implement a Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Management system that allows to demonstrate Carbon Neutrality in a verified way, is to define a scope for the measurement of emissions, establishing a reference base year and forming a responsible committee. to sustain the climate change mitigation strategy at the operations level.

What standards guide us towards Carbon Neutrality?

There are multiple international standards that guide us towards effective management of greenhouse gases at the organizational level such as ISO 14064-1 & 3, GHG Protocol and IPCC.

To measure GHG emissions, it is essential to define an operational control approach for monitoring and recording activity data associated with the measurement of various emission sources identified within the organization's operational limits.

The most widely used method for calculating emissions is to use GHG emission factors prepared by recognized local or international institutions.

How is an efficient Carbon Neutrality process achieved?

In conventional practice, the monitoring of environmental indicators related to greenhouse gas emitting processes is carried out at least once a year, however, this management does not allow organizations to obtain an x-ray of what is environmentally happening in the activities that produce a significant carbon footprint.

To achieve an efficient Carbon Neutrality process, the monitoring of GHG emissions should be recurrent and automated in operations where this is possible.

In this way, responsible teams can make decisions to achieve less impactful and more eco-efficient processes.

What limits the reduction of greenhouse gases?
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Many organizations believe that managing emissions involves large investments, but those that dare to explore a cleaner operation realize that managing environmental indicators also allows them to optimize the use of resources and the cost associated with their use.

The first mitigation actions that any organization must take should focus on the cultural transformation of the work environment, since a team that is not aware of how to minimize the environmental impact that aggravates the climate crisis will hardly see opportunities when it comes to environmental management.

Once the organization manages to optimize processes and the consumption of resources such as fuels, refrigerant gases, electricity, waste, among others that directly or indirectly emit greenhouse gas emissions, the incorporation of technologies that allow us to further reduce our footprint can be assessed. organizational carbon.

How does offsetting greenhouse gas emissions work?

Emissions offsetting is carried out in order to neutralize the impact of those emissions that an organization can no longer reduce because it could impact its operating cost.

The compensation consists of acquiring carbon credits from a project external to the operations of an organization for a value equivalent to the result of our net residual emissions of greenhouse gases.

Net residual emissions are those that occur after implementing reduction actions on our different processes.

Offset projects are related to the production of clean energy or the conservation of forests as carbon sinks. The most popular compensation schemes on the market respond to the following schemes: Verified Carbon Standard, Gold Standard, and Clean Development Mechanisms (CDM).

What does it mean to have a “Net Zero” goal as an organization?

The concept of "Net Zero" means achieving zero emissions within a specified period by means of reduction actions and the compensation of residual net emissions, and from 2020 the term began to have more relevance among those industries and corporations that seek to actively contribute to the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.

Having a “Net Zero” goal means that the vision of an organization also responds to the global need to transform the current production model into one that allows minimizing the environmental impact that accelerates global warming and exacerbates the Climate Crisis.

Most of the corporations with Net Zero goals are proposing to significantly minimize their emissions through a gradual change that allows them to demonstrate results until 2030 and 2050.

What does the concept of scope I, II and III emissions refer to?

The concept of scope I, II and III emissions comes from the Corporate Standard for Accounting and Reporting of Greenhouse Gases, better known as the GHG Protocol.

Similarly, the ISO 14064 standard classifies emissions as direct, indirect and other indirect, which is similar in definition to that proposed by the GHG Protocol.

Scope I or direct emissions are those that come from processes controlled by the organization, scope II or indirect emissions refer to the consumption of electrical energy or purchased heat, and scope III or other significant indirect emissions are those that occur outside of the operational limits of an organization but within its productive value chain.

How is a verified or certified Carbon Neutrality process achieved?

To verify or certify a Carbon Neutrality process by opting for the highest technical recognition in the matter, the organization must submit its greenhouse gas management system for verification before a Greenhouse Gas Validator and Verifier Body accredited in ISO 14065.

The external verification of GHG complies with the ISO 14064-3 standard, and the focus of the evaluation consists of tracing the origin of the information related to the GHG sources that are part of the scope of the organization, and reviewing the documentation related to the process as well as the GHG Technical Report based on ISO 14069.