Focus: Consumer accreditation labels: carboNZero

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Just 80 New Zealand companies hold the carboNZero certification. Another 120 more are on the way with the CEMARS label. A round of applause...

Reducing carbon has become the world's crash diet programme to rescue its failing health. The good news is that the transition to a low carbon economy is opening up enormous business opportunities, of which the fittest New Zealand firms are already taking advantage.

The idea seems devastatingly simple: cut the amount of greenhouse gases we pump out and so slow the greenhouse effect that is heating the place up, making weather patterns turn dangerously odd, melting glaciers and acidifying the oceans. ?But it's not that easy. The vast majority of the worldwide industrial economy still relies on methods of energy generation, transport and production that emit large amounts of greenhouse gases.

Which is where programmes like carboNZero come in. Because there are many ways of lowering emissions while improving our economy, and new ways of doing so are being developed all the time. The key to reducing emissions without undermining our way of life is to support these new developments and the companies that engage in them.

For the conscious consumer it means the carboNZero programme does the hard work for us, so we don't have to check out the carbon credentials of every company we want to buy stuff from. And for the companies, it allows them to get the jump on the big polluters when it comes to earning our increasingly green dollars.

No greenwash allowed

The carboNZero programme was established in 2001 by Landcare Research New Zealand Limited, one of New Zealand's leading Crown Research Institutes owned by the government. It's based on more than a decade's worth of research, and provides a set of tools for individuals, organisations, products and events to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, or carbon footprint.

Graham Carter, CEO of the carboNZero programme, says: "We were an idea developed on the back of a napkin in 2001 by Landcare Research, and now we are a viable commercial entity looking to take on the world."

The first two steps are measuring the emissions and finding ways for them to be reduced. Crucially, an emissions inventory has to be prepared, and efforts to reduce emissions have to be independently verified before those seeking carboNZero certification can move to the offsetting stage. This avoids companies simply paying to pollute at existing levels.

Another important way of ensuring a genuine drop in emissions is that if a project would have happened anyway, say through the sale of electricity or because of government funding, then it cannot be used as an offset project. Some of the verified projects currently approved by carboNZero include wind power projects in India and China and geothermal plant in Indonesia.

Closer to home, payments from carboNZero certified companies also help support the use of methane gas from the former Burwood landfill to heat the Queen Elizabeth II Park Recreation and Sport Centre in Christchurch.

Carter warns to keep on the lookout for cheap imitations: "People should think twice if they see or hear a green claim coming from an organisation. If there is no certification or transparency to independently back up their environmental or green claims, then you should question it. There are organisations out there trying to jump on the green bandwagon, when really they are taking little or no credible action."

Some of the high street ?names taking part in the carboNZero programme

carboNZero has nearly 200 certified organisations and products (110 CEMARS certified, 80 carboNZero certified) and are working with organisations in the UK, UAE, Australia, Chile as well as here in NZ. Here's some you might know.

Yealands Estate Wines
Bridgestone Ecopia tyres
Meridian Energy
Snowberry beauty products
Evolu botanical skincare
Kea Campers
Inca Fe
Spicers Paper
Urgent Couriers
Dry River Wines
Wairau River Wines
For the full list visit carbonzero.co.nz/members

CEMARS - the Certified ?Emissions Measurement And Reduction Scheme

CEMARS certification essentially gives large organisations the opportunity to take on the first two steps of carboNZero certification, to measure and manage, and have these two steps independently verified then certified. It has been specifically designed for large businesses in which offsetting is not yet a viable option, or there is a need to fully assess the effects carbon reduction has before going further.