Sustainability Questions & Answers

Carbon neutrality is a voluntary mechanism with the primary goal of achieving zero net GHG emissions from all business activities. This is accomplished through a combination of reduction strategies e.g. energy efficiency, green procurement decisions, behavioural changes, and purchasing verified carbon offsets for all remaining unavoidable emissions.

Carbon offsetting is a mechanism that allows organisations to negate their unavoidable climate change impact by purchasing carbon offsets. Carbon offsets are created by projects (e.g. wind farms or biogas renewable energy plants) that avoid greenhouse gas emissions that would have otherwise occurred under business as usual. Each tonne of greenhouse gas (Carbon Dioxide Equivalent – CO2-e) that is saved by these projects, is registered, audited, and verified, and sold as a carbon offset.

All carbon offsets used by Worldwide are tested to meet the Australian Federal Government National Carbon Offset Standard. Further to this, the Carbon Reduction Institute tests carbon offset projects against 5 key criteria. These are Financially Additional, Environmentally Additional, Permanence, No Leakage, and Validated and Verified Savings.

Worldwide holds a current NoC02 Accreditation has been through a full carbon audit process. This means that Worldwide has had its carbon footprint measured, including all GHG emissions that the business is responsible for. Each year each site is reaudited, so the correct number of carbon offsets can be purchased and retired to comply with the NoCO2 claim.

Worldwide have gone through a thorough process of officially certifying their business, products and services as carbon neutral through the Carbon Reduction Institute’s NoCO2 Certification Program, which is Australia’s most subscribed climate change certification program. A series of carbon audits have been conducted using international standards for greenhouse gas accounting (GHG Protocol), and all offsets purchased meet the National Carbon Offset Standard (NCOS), and are retired on the Markit Registry (www.markit.com).

It is commonly recognised that organisations that take action on climate change are able to capture and tap into the growing demand from carbon-conscious consumers and investors. They can also receive increased media attention and attract or retain good quality staff, to mention just a few of the benefits. Organisations that use Worldwide carbon neutral services are also taking action on climate change, by reducing their own supply chain emissions through their purchasing decisions, and this carbon neutral service comes at no extra cost to the customer!

Yes. A large component of an organisation’s carbon footprint is what is known as supply chain emissions – the embodied emissions in the goods and services that a business procures. This, therefore, includes the printed material they use, so purchasing goods and services from NoCO2 suppliers, instantly reduces their carbon footprint.

Yes, if the particular Worldwide holds a current NoC02 Accreditation. There is a ‘Certified Carbon Neutral Printed’ logo that can be used on your promotional printed material, so your customers can see the sustainable purchasing choices you make as an organisation. Please contact Worldwide for more information on this.

Our current Carbon Credits project is the Generic Wind Project in China, which is crucial to avoid catastrophic consequences caused by carbon emissions. Windfarms replace energy derived from fossil fuels, whilst limiting local air pollution and creates long-term job opportunities for contractors, suppliers and residents in the area.

The aim of the project is to reduce long-term harmful air quality conditions.

Benefits

• Improves China’s carbon emissions, which ultimately affects the world’s emissions.

• It’s a clean fuel source and is cost-effective.

• Promotes renewable wind energy technology.

• Progresses community health and local economy.

These projects have been verified and validated, meet all the 5 criteria for a quality carbon offset, and have resulted in the abatement of significant amount of CO2. These carbon offset projects have also been chosen for the social and economic contribution they bring to their local areas, which include reducing the burden placed upon women and children with the need to collect wood, freeing them to pursue more worthwhile activities, and increasing the available household income of farmers by bringing a financial value to what was previously a redundant waste agricultural product.

One of the key standards for Carbon Offsets is that the carbon savings are ‘Environmentally Additional’. A knock-on effect of this is that since Australia ratified the Kyoto Protocol in late 2007, the carbon savings in Australia are now already accounted for in our Governments mandatory reduction targets, and therefore carbon savings in Australia no longer qualify as being environmentally additional. Carbon Offsets must meet all criteria in order to become certified under the NoCO2 Program.