The presentation of Professor Greg Norris, adjunct lecturer of Harvard and chief scientist of Living Future Institute in the Carbon Game –event. It was organised by Sitra in collaboration with Climate Partners and Finnish Environmental Institute (SYKE). In the event the definition and rules of carbon neutrality were discussed as well as how carbon neutrality is seen in business both in Finland and globally. See also the separate presentations of the event and the workshop by Katriina Alhola and Jáchym Judl (SYKE) and Senior Lead Tiina Kähö (Sitra).

1. Approaches Toward Carbon Neutral Enterprises:
Observed Trends and Horizon in the USA
15 April 2015, SITRA, Helsinki
Gregory A. Norris
Co-Director, SHINE, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Chief Scientist, International Living Future Institute

2. Outline
• Frames for Carbon Neutrality
• The rise and fall of Offsets
• The new rise of Carbon Neutrality
• Beyond Neutral: Positive Changes Everything
• The Need for Standards

3. What is a Footprint?
All the negative impacts of all the processes
needed to sustain or produce something.
Products have them
Services too
People
Organizations
Flickr: Huff

5. Based on several definitions for carbon neutrality, it refers to conditions in
which the net greenhouse gas emissions of a unit (often organization or
product) to the atmosphere equal zero.
Definition for carbon neutrality
Carbon neutrality can be achieved through a
transparent process of:
1. Measuring and calculating GHG emissions,
i.e. carbon footprint
2. Reducing emissions as much as possible
3. Offsetting the remaining emissions
(DECC/Defra 2009) 5

6. Guidance to carbon neutrality
6
Several standards, guidelines and programmes exist to help organizations to calculate their footprint, become
carbon neutral and substantiate their claim.
Document Level and focus Scope and type
GHG Protocol
(WBCSD/WRI)
Organizations; to measure, manage, and report greenhouse
gas emissions.
International standard
ISO 14064-1 Organizations; to specify principles and requirement for
quantification and reporting of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
and removals. It includes requirements for the design,
development, management, reporting and verification of an
organization's GHG inventory.
International standard
PAS 2050 (British
Standard Institution)
Products and services; to specify requirements for the assessment
of the life cycle GHG emissions (builds on existing life cycle
assessment methods established through BS EN ISO 14040 and BS
EN ISO 14044).
UK / International guidelines
PAS 2060:2014 Carbon
neutrality
Organizations; Specification for the demonstration of carbon
neutrality
UK standard / international specification
Defra/DECC Organizations; how to measure and report corporate greenhouse
gas emissions
UK guidance
National carbon offset
standard
Business operations, products, events;
Guidance on genuine voluntary offsets and its minimum
requirements for calculating, auditing and offsetting a carbon
footprint to achieve carbon neutrality.
Australia / voluntary program / standard
In addition to ISO-standards and national standards and programmes (examples above), a wide range of private
companies have launced their own certificates and evaluation process for carbon neutrality, which is often based
on the guidance given in GHG Protocol and/or ISO 14001 standards for footprint calculation. These private
companies calculate the footprint for the organization, suggest emission reductions and take care of the offsetting
to verified projects.

7. ”The Standard for Carbon Neutrality” PAS 2060 describes carbon neutrality as a process including:
How to achieve carbon neutrality?
7
Calculating carbon footprint according to ISO 14064-1 or GHG corporate protocol.
The organization must develop a carbon management plan that includes a public commitment to carbon neutrality,
outlines a time scale, specific targets for reductions, the planned means of achieving reductions and how residual
emissions will be offset. The reductions should be either in the total amount of carbon emitted (in absolute terms) or a
reduction in carbon intensity (in relative terms), for example carbon emissions per unit output or per € of turnover. If in
relative terms, the reduction must be greater than the economic growth rate for the region in which the entity operates.
MEASUREMENT
REDUCTION
By high quality, certified carbon credits (Clean Development Mechanism, Joint Implementation or Voluntary Carbon
Standard) verified by third party.
OFFSETTING RESIDUAL EMISSIONS
Disclosure of all the documentation including evidence of emission reductions and retirered offsets. The standard
accepts self validation, other party validation and third party independent validation.
DOCUMENTATION AND VERIFICATION

9. How did we get here?
• First Carbon Offset Project: Applied Energy
Services (USA), 1989
• Future Forests created, 1996
– Rolling Stones offset 2003 tour
• GHG Protocol (WRI/WBCSD) Corp. Std. 2001
• 2003-5, Tree-planting offset backlash mounts
– Carbon Trade Watch, 2007: “The C Neutral Myth”
• DEFRA (UK) PAS 2050 (v1) 2008; 2011
• EcoDesk: “C-Neutral Banks aren’t greener” 2011

10. Elements of the Offset Backlash
• Analogy to “indulgences”
– Related to lack of compelling reduction targets as step
2 in the 3-step process
• Tree-planting project effectiveness research
• Indigenous land rights issues
• Assessing “Additionality” – that the project would
not have happened without the $
• Personal neutrality misses collective action
problems, “promotes status quo”
• Projects remote from offsetter

11. By 2014…
But Low-Carbonality hadn’t plummetted,
just the demand for GHG offsets

12. Low-Carbon Leadership Examples
• Microsoft
– 2012: began charging Internal Carbon fee
– December 2013: Publishes Carbon Fee Guide
– By 2014: 285 MW wind
• December 2014: CDP report outlines 29 companies with
internal Carbon Fee systems
• 2014: More Google wind added, totaling 1 GW
• September 2014: 15 companies co-launch “RE 100” with
goal of 100 large companies 100% renewable by 2020
• 2015: Amazon 150-MW wind
• 2015: Walmart up to 100 MW rooftop solar
• November 2015: Apple adds 130 MW solar

14. How did we get here?

19. • Data for consumer products in US,
broken into 253 separate categories,
cradle-through use results
• Alert: this could shape a push to go beyond
(albeit wonderful) Scope 1&2 Renewable

20. Outline
• Frames for Carbon Neutrality
• The rise and fall of Offsets
• The new rise of Carbon Neutrality
• Beyond Neutral: Positive Changes Everything
• The Need for Standards

21. Summary of Business Value from (narrow
scope) Carbon Neutrality via combination of
lower footprint and sourcing renewables
• Profitability (lower cost electricity now)
• Lower cost risks
– Conventional fuel price escalation
– Carbon tax
• Lower cost of capital
• Brand value, customer loyalty
• Attract and retain talent
• License to operate

22. Narrow Scope Carbon Neutrality
• Doesn’t change what you make, but
How You Make It.
• Is inspirational now, and needed now.
• Can be propagated to energy hotspots in
supply chain, via savings sharing, to begin to
address Scope 3.
• Brings co-benefits to some other sustainability
endpoints (e.g., health & biodiversity)

23. Expanding Scope, and Going Beyond Neutral:
Broad-Spectrum NetPositive
• Once you’ve made your own operations as
low-GHG-emitting you can make them,
then what?
– What about the GHG impacts of your supply chain?
– What about the other dimensions of sustainability?

24. Sustainability has been all
about shrinking your footprint;
then buying (dubious) offsets
for the remainder.
Flickr: chuddlesworth

25. ENERGY WATER
CLIMATE
MATERIAL
HEALTH
Every Product Still Has (Many) Footprints
B. Monginoux / Landscape-Photo.net (cc by-nc-nd) Flickr: Carvalho;Lourenco

26. The planet would be better off without me?

28. Becoming Positive…
We can’t shrink our way to Positive.
To become healers,
We Must Give More than we Take.

29. What do you Take?
Person: What is required to sustain you.
Organization: What is required to enable you to
offer what you offer to the world.
Product: What is required to offer it to the world.

30. What do you Give?

31. If We Want to be NetPostive,
We’ve Got To Learn To Give.

32. What is a Handprint?
Handprints are positive impacts we
cause to happen in the world.
They are ways we make tomorrow
better than today.

33. A handprint of a product is the
sum total of positive impacts we
create.
A footprint of a product is the
sum total of negative impacts
caused by the process
necessary to produce the
product.

34. Handprints were defined in direct relation to Footprints,
so that Handprint > Footprint  NetPositive
Built on LCA using the same metrics as
Footprints
Same Impact Dimensions: Supply Chains
and Life Cycles
Footprinting: Shared Responsibility
Handprinting: Shared Credit

35. 3 ways to create Handprints
Step 1: Reduce your own footprint:
* Reformulate/redesign your good or service
* Switch suppliers, or promote innovation in your supply chain
* Green your own production operations

36. Your footprint
Humanity's
Footprint
Don't constrain the good you can do
by the harm you're now causing.

37. Step 2: Help anyone/everyone
else reduce their footprint
* Make your product more efficient for others to use
* Engage/inform/inspire users to use more wisely
* Share innovations or research
* Grow demand for NetPositive goods and services

38. Step 3: Think outside the foot!
Take generative actions:
* Plant a tree
* Protect or restore habitat or other ecosystems
* Promote healing, health, and human development

40. Leaders share these impacts of “Sustainable Product Portfolios”:
 Alignment of Business goals and Sustainability Mission
 Innovation Spillover
 Higher Profitability
SKF, Siemens, Akzo Nobel, Ernst & Young,
WWF, WRI, and over 100 participants:
“We need Credible Standardized Methods”

42. Innovating for NetPositive Impact
June 4-5, 2015
Harvard Campus, Cambridge MA

43. Comprehensive Footprinting Addresses
Full Supply Chain and (in some cases)
Life Cycles of Goods and Services
-
+
Ops
Supply Chain
Use
Post-use
Environmental Social

44. Environmental
Responsibility
Opportunities
SHINE Framework Adds Positive,
and Expands Human Pathways
-
+
Human
Responsibility
Opportunities
Positive
Environmental
Opportunities
Positive
Human
Opportunities

45. Positive Human Opportunities
Responsibility
Opportunities
Positive Environmental
Opportunities
Human
Responsibility Opportunities
Injury/
Illness
Well-Being
-
+
Health
Promotion
Work-Life
Experiences
SHINE Framework Adds Positive,
and Expands Human Pathways