13. February 2024
Max Oostendorp
Sometimes it feels like our world revolves around consumerism as we face the current and future challenges of climate change. In this context, the meaning of the term “carbon neutral” is a familiar strategy used by many brands to reassure us about our purchasing behavior. While the term “carbon neutral” is widely used in today’s business world, there are a number of complexities and misunderstandings associated with the term – which we try to address in the following blog post.
The term “Carbon-Neutral” is often used interchangeably with and strongly connected to sustainable practices. It implies that the CO2 emissions of a given corporation, induced by in-house practices, can be offset through certain means.
While the spread of the term is difficult to trace, several political key events can be referred to when aiming to understand the history and culmination of “Carbon-Neutral”. One such example is the ‘United Nations Conference on the Human Environment’ or ‘Stockholm Conference’ from 1972 that is deemed as the first step towards an international agreement on environmental politics. 1,200 representatives from 113 states came together aiming to address human impact on the environment. However, it took another 25 years for a legally binding agreement to emerge at the third annual United Nations Climate Change conference in 1997 in the form of the Kyoto-Protocol outlining an obligation towards the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Such events could indicate the emergence of a terminology necessary to make complicated processes approachable for the wider society.
Next to the state level, it is worth mentioning the idea of the ‘Carbon-Footprint’ on the individual level. With a growing public attention on the topic companies and corporations had to adapt and develop strategies to cope with the pressures coming from political and public sides alike. One prime example here is BP, formerly known as ‘British Petroleum’, who not only introduced ‘greenwashing’ changes to their name, now going for Beyond Petroleum’ and their logo at the turn of the millennium but also provided the public with the first tool to calculate one’s own carbon footprint. The tool, still accessible today on their website, not only shifted the focus of responsibility from corporate to individual but also introduced a still widely debated topic: Who is at fault – producer or consumer?
Addressing this question, so as not to diminish customer purchasing behavior, many companies today engage in ‘greenwashing.’ According to the german “Verbraucherzentrale” and “WirtschaftsWoche”, it has become a common practice for businesses to employ various methods to carry out “greenwashing”.
“Greenwashing” refers to the practice of portraying products and/or services as more sustainable than they actually are. Some of these practices include the abuse of certificates, selective publication of information, ingredients, or procedures or the direct lie about aforementioned. Such activities delineate a picture with which consumers and clients feel more comfortable in purchasing the product and keep or increase buying patterns.
A similarly important term next to “climate-neutral” is “compensation.” Compensation describes a strategy where companies – ideally – calculate their CO2 emissions and subsequently “offset” them with various measures. Examples of such measures include investments in renewable energy sources, planting and reforestation projects, or the protection of existing carbon sinks—natural ecosystems capable of absorbing significant amounts of carbon dioxide, seemingly compensating for emissions.
With the growing importance of sustainable business practices and increasing public interest in environmental issues, numerous providers have emerged offering compensation and similar services. Some of these offerings are questionable, and their traceability is challenging to ensure, leading to public criticism as highlighted in the media.
The fact that “greenwashing” is problematic is no secret, yet many ventures actively decide to ignore the obvious. It appears to be a convenient vehicle to avoid losing the brand image under the competitive pressure of the social market economy.
As a venture we are aware of the issues at hand and with our sustainable initiative VAST GREEN we want to refrain from setting the goal of solely buying abstruse certificates and portray ourselves as “carbon-neutral”. Given that it is essentially an unreachable goal.
“Our motto ‘We Do Not Just Compensate’ perfectly depicts our approach to the status quo: we believe that sustainability must be viewed as an ongoing journey, an inevitable process that cannot be ‘completed.’ We perceive our sustainability journey as self-critical motivation, simultaneously navigating a balancing act between nature, humanity, and economy. With these thoughts in mind, we have taken significant strides since 2020 towards a sustainable future, and we are committed to continuing this path.
Next to our permanent job of tracking and analyzing our emissions as detailed as possible, we aim to position ourselves as a sustainable partner within our professional network and show how the transparent communication of our sustainability efforts can not only be helpful, but easy as well.
Our strategy is not based on compensation because we need to address the root of the problem – understanding how we generate emissions, measuring, and minimizing them in collaboration as a team! We have been consistently pursuing continuous measurement of the fundamentals since 2021. Today, we have a precise understanding of our annual “CO2 footprint.” Examination of team workplaces and surveys within the network has provided us with relevant data on emission sources.
Even though simple compensation might seem feasible now, we go the extra mile. As a “Moving Asset Business,” the development of Vast Forward depends significantly on our team and our collective effort towards sustainable practices. Through weekly Lunch&Learns, we continuously educate ourselves in various sustainability areas. While utilizing the knowledge of external professionals, we typically rely on our team to lead meetings and address diverse and critical sustainability topics.
Moreover, we dedicate an hour each week to our “Coworking” session, focusing on sustainability working groups as well as the “Sustainable Friday” where our team presents self-selected and researched sustainability topics, fostering discourse.
In addition to our employees, we closely collaborate with our expert network and have conducted surveys on environmental topics such as “Green Data” to involve them in our sustainability journey. Crucially, for the future, is the ongoing development of our team’s overall approach with a sustainability focus.
Even though we do not want VAST FORWARD’s objective to be relying on certificates and other compensatory actions, we do not get around utilizing the measures at hand. Today we work with a partner with whom we aim to protect forests in Peru and Canada. And next to our core team we have decided to include our whole network in these compensations – since we are all part of our professional day to day.
Despite the existing challenges, Vast Forward must also offset emissions because, on the path to our sustainable future, it is a necessary step. An example is the protection of rainforests from deforestation. This appears to be a beneficial measure – when implemented correctly and on a widespread scale, it can be a crucial component for sequestering emissions and safeguarding our environment.
Currently, we collaborate with “Wilderness International,” a partner dedicated to protecting forests in Peru and Canada. Additionally, we have decided to involve not only our core team but also our production network in sustainability measures. After all, as an extended team, we are all part of Vast Forward’s emissions challenge.
Compensation therefore remains an essential part of our sustainability strategy. However, our goal is not to rely on compensation alone, but to always start with our own responsibility. Among other important information, our website vast-green.com includes our annual Impact Report, which shares VAST FORWARD’s commitment and the steps we are taking along the way.
It provides a transparent insight into our environmental performance and shows our continuous efforts, our self-critical attitude and, hopefully, our open communication – our own standards and our drive for a new, more sustainable world.
Bild: iStock/francoillustration
