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What is a zero carbon business?

The terms zero carbon, carbon neutral, carbon negative, and decarbonisation are commonplace in today’s sustainable business lexicon.  But what do they actually mean, and what does it really mean to be a zero carbon business?

The first important thing to note is that different businesses use these terms interchangeably to talk about the same thing. One business might talk about their decarbonisation strategy, while another talks about their journey to zero carbon, but their plans are almost identical. The difference is often simply which term one business chooses to use over another in their marketing.

Climate scientists agree that the rapidly increasing warming of the planet is caused by anthropogenic, or man-made, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, of which carbon dioxide (CO2) is the most prevalent. This global warming of the climate is proven to increase the strength and frequency of extreme weather events – floods, droughts, wildfires, etc. – and has led to the term ‘climate crisis’. Scientists agree that we must rapidly curb our GHG emissions in order to prevent ‘runaway climate change’ – e.g. the tipping point at which humans will be able to do nothing about the state of the global climate system.

Businesses around the world have a huge role to play. And a zero carbon business is one which produces zero carbon emissions from its operations. This is neither an easy task, nor a short journey. It relies on a wide variety of measures to be taken, and also a fundamental shift in the company culture.

What Do We Do?

The journey to zero carbon is exactly that: a journey. And it’s one that should not be underestimated. Acclaro’s approach focuses on taking a company through a maturity curve to achieve leadership in their sector.

Our service-groupings approach of Plan & Understand > Strategise & Influence > Embed & Improve > Verify & Communicate has been carefully designed to support businesses of different sizes, in different sectors, and which are on different stages of their journey.

To discover how Acclaro can support you on your journey to zero carbon, please browse the services that each of these groupings comprises by looking at the list in the sidebar of this page, or by clicking here.

What Are The Benefits?

Businesses becoming zero carbon will greatly facilitate the transition to a low-carbon economy – something which is desperately required in order to curb runaway climate change.

But business leaders, investors, and stakeholders will also be interested in the many financial and competitive advantages associated with achieving zero carbon. Any business which cares about its long-term security must take decarbonisation seriously if it still wishes to be operating in 20 or so years’ time. Indeed, in 2019 Mark Carney, Governor of the Bank of England, stated that firms choosing to ignore the climate crisis will go bankrupt. Add that to the increasing sustainability-related demands from investors, and your business has an incredibly compelling reason to take this seriously.

The most forward-thinking businesses which are considering the journey to achieving zero carbon will see a genuine opportunity to develop and implement a formal plan to reduce emissions, realise efficiencies, and build resilience in the face of a rapidly changing world.

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