Is The Climate Active Program for Small – Medium Business? You Decide! – Carbonhalo

You may or may not heard of the Climate Active Program. Its an Australian Government program that sets out to ‘support’ national climate policy by driving voluntary climate action (i.e. action by businesses and organisations to avoid, reduce and offset emissions without a ‘legislated’ requirement to do so).

At face value, this sounds great. But who is this program really for?  and what’s involved?

Considering that Australia has more than 2.4 million businesses of which 98% are classified small to medium with under 20 employees is this Climate Active Standard applicable?

Let’s start by summarising the Climate Active Program:

Overview:

The Climate Active Program is an Australian Government initiative that encourages businesses and organizations to take voluntary action to reduce their carbon emissions and transition to a more sustainable and low-carbon future. This program was formerly known as the National Carbon Offset Standard (NCOS) and was rebranded as Climate Active in 2019 to better reflect its broader goals. The Standard makes reference to the GHG Protocol and ISO 1400 series standards as the foundational approach to lessen negative impact.

Key Objectives:

1. Emission Reduction: The primary goal of the program is to help organisations reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and achieve carbon neutrality. This is achieved through activities such as energy efficiency improvements, renewable energy use, and carbon offsetting.
2. Certification: Businesses and organizations that meet the program’s criteria can become Climate Active Certified. This certification serves as a way to demonstrate a commitment to environmental responsibility.
3. Carbon Offsetting: For emissions that cannot be eliminated through reductions, participants can invest in carbon offset projects approved by the program. These projects capture or reduce an equivalent amount of emissions, balancing out the organization’s carbon footprint.

Eligibility:

The Climate Active Program is open to any business or government entities, and not-for-profit organizations. It is voluntary, and participants can engage in different levels of commitment depending on their environmental goals.

Stated Benefits:

• Environmental Responsibility: Participation in the program showcases a commitment to addressing climate change and reducing the organization’s carbon footprint.
• Certification: Climate Active used Certification badges as a symbol of carbon neutrality.
• Marketability: Many consumers and stakeholders prioritize sustainability, making Climate Active certification a way to advertise your action.
• Access to Knowledge: Participants can access resources and guidance to help them make informed decisions about emissions reduction and offsetting.

What’s Involved?

We are not going to pull any punches here. If you are intending to do this yourself, be prepared it’s complex, time-consuming, and costly, the other alternative is to hire a consultant to do this for you – see the costs section.

After you have waded through the 200-plus pages of guidance material you will need to set out to complete the following:

1. Emission Measurement and Reporting: Accurately measure and report emissions is a fundamental requirement for certification. Businesses must collect and analyse data from various sources, this can be complex and a resource-intensive process.
2. Carbon Footprint Assessment: Calculating the organisation’s carbon footprint entails accounting for emissions from all scopes, including direct (Scope 1), energy-related (Scope 2), and indirect (Scope 3) emissions.
3. Setting Reduction Targets: Once emissions are quantified, businesses need to set realistic and ambitious reduction targets.
4. Implementation of Mitigation Strategies: Taking effective measures to reduce emissions requires planning and investment in energy-efficient technologies, renewable energy sources, and sustainable practices.
5. Carbon Offset Selection: When emissions cannot be completely eliminated, businesses may need to invest in carbon offset projects. Finding a retailer that can do this for you is not easy, then selecting suitable projects and ensuring they align with program requirements can be intricate, you also have the cost of the offsets.
6. Data Verification: Climate Active certification involves third-party verification to ensure accuracy and credibility. Preparing for and undergoing this verification will require associated documentation and the hiring of consultants.
7. Cost Considerations: Becoming certified will require, an annual license fee from Climate Active, third-party consultants to verify the measurement, carbon offsets for unavoidable emissions, and capital for emissions reduction initiatives. Balancing these costs with the benefits of certification can be a challenge for businesses.
8. Change Management: Implementing sustainability measures and fostering a culture of environmental responsibility may require a shift in organisational culture and practices.
9. Long-Term Commitment: Maintaining carbon neutrality is an ongoing effort, and businesses must continuously monitor and adjust their strategies to remain certified.

The overall certification process can be illustrated below:

How long does all this take?

This can vary depending on the size of your business and type of certification. In our experience the longest part is usually the data collection if you allow 4 weeks for this, and if you have this readily available a competent consultant should be able to validate in 2-3 weeks. All relevant documentation needs to be completed and sent to the Climate Active team, once an application is completed, a decision will be made and this can take up to six weeks.

So for an optimised result the duration would take a minimum of 3-4 months.

What’s the Cost?

Costs are typically annualised so you will need to budget for this each year.

License Fees

The Climate Active annual license fee to maintain certification and use the Climate Active Badge is:

The fees undergo an annual increase of 2.5% on 1^st July each year, unless the department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources publishes different fees through an updated license agreement.

Consultant costs

The following are ball park figures in which we have established based on knowledge of what qualified consultants n this field charge out

We have supplied a range of offset costs depending on the project and the source of the offset. Noting that Climate Active excludes certain types of projects and requires at this point a minimum vintage of 2012.

Offset Costs assuming a small business has 65t CO2 p.a.

So let’s run an example of a Small Business wanting to be Climate Active with an average of 65tCO2 measured per year:

• Verification Consultants = $3,000
• Offsets (Mid-range costs combined) = $2,772
• Climate Active License Fee = $845
• Your Time = ?
• Total annual costs = $6,617 excluding time

A full management scenario would add another ~$10,000 to this initially.

As a small to medium business is this something that is easily slotted into the budget each year?

Is there a Better Way?

For some businesses, Climate Actie is the way to go, however for most its probably unlikely given the cost elements. Does this mean your business can’t adopt sustainable values and do something positive?

If we reflect on the Objectives of Climate Active, to lessen the negative impact on the environment by:

• Emissions Reduction
• Certification /Commitment
• Carbon Offsetting

What if there was a way to do this that still is in alignment with the reference standards (GHG Protocol & ISO 14000 standards) without all the complexity, cost and time associated with this process?

Well there is….

Want to find out how your business can get a verified level assessment which includes:

• Access to a centralised software platform for all your climate action
• Customised emissions reduction management plans
• Automated reporting demonstrating your impact
• Access to like-minded community
• Create / Join and customise groups to share collaborate and join other groups,
• Visibility across your entire supply chain and,
• many more features all for less than $890 p.a.

Contact us below for a free 30 min consultation.

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• Source: https://www.carbonhalo.com/is-the-climate-active-program-for-small-medium-business-you-decide/