Carbon Trust

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Carbon Trust
Company typeNot for Dividend Private Company Limited by Guarantee
IndustryCarbon management and reduction
FoundedMarch 2001;23 years ago (2001-03) in London, United Kingdom
Headquarters
London
,
United Kingdom
Number of locations
10
Key people
 Tom Delay CBE (CEO)
Baroness Brown of Cambridge (Chair)
Number of employees
400+
Website carbontrust.com

The Carbon Trust is a United Kingdom-based consultancy established in March 2001. Its aim is to accelerate the pace of private sector Decarbonization and increase energy efficiency in the United Kingdom and worldwide.

Contents

The Carbon Trust was originally funded by around £50m of UK tax revenue generated from the Climate Change Levy (CCL), a tax on business energy use. The trust's initial goal was to help businesses reduce energy costs and therefore offset the additional cost of paying the CCL. The establishment of the Carbon Trust was announced in the 2000 UK White Paper "Climate Change - the UK Programme" (Cmd 4913). [1]

The Carbon Trust was conceived as a business-led, publicly funded organisation operating at arms length from the UK government. [2] The early concept, design, and governance were carried out in close consultation with business. Senior officials from the Devolved Administrations and the UK department (the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions) would sit on the Trust's Board, where non-business non-executive Directors were in the majority. However, the chair, CEO and most of the executive team were appointed from the private sector, most notably the oil and gas and management consultancy sectors. Founding CEO Tom Delay previously worked at Shell for 16 years before beginning his 22-year tenure as CEO of the trust.

In July 2023, Delay announced his retirement from his role as CEO of the Carbon Trust. [3] In January 2024, the Carbon Trust appointed Chris Stark, former head of the UK Climate Change Committee, as CEO, with Stark's term beginning in Spring 2024. [4]

Remit and initial programmes

Source: [5] [6]

The Trust began its work with three core activities: [7]

The need to recycle CCL revenues back to business by reducing energy costs through energy efficiency was a key early driver of the Carbon Trust's work. Its first act was to take over the UK government's £17m pa Energy Efficiency Best Practice Programme (EEBPP) in 2002, [8] a UK-wide information-based measure providing independent advice and support on existing energy efficient technologies and energy management practices.

The Trust reconfigured the EEBPP to improve its focus and services to business under a new branding called "Action Energy".

The Carbon Trust also initiated work on new and emerging low carbon technologies using a range of programmes and measures including traditional research, development, and demonstration support to supporting early stage companies developing new technologies and practices. These activities came under the banner of the "Low Carbon Innovation Programme".

Current work

The Carbon Trust presents itself as a global organisation, with offices in China, Mexico, the Netherlands, Singapore, South Africa, the UK and USA.

Services

The Carbon Trust provides sustainability education to businesses to help them save energy, [9] as well as voluntary carbon certification services and carbon labelling schemes that verify carbon footprint data and companies' adherence to standards. It also works with governments and corporations on low carbon technologies, [10] including offshore wind and marine energy. [11]

Carbon footprinting, verification and Carbon Trust standard

Carbon Trust standards

The Carbon Trust runs a series of environmental standards that certify measurement and reduction. Currently, these cover carbon, water and waste and have been awarded to hundreds of leading companies and organisations across the world.

In June 2008 the Carbon Trust introduced the Carbon Trust Carbon Standard to address what it describes as business greenwash. [12] The Carbon Trust Carbon Standard is only awarded to companies and organisations who measure and reduce their carbon emissions year on year. [13] Examples of organisations who have held the Carbon Standard include Sky, Aldi, Eurotunnel, Bupa, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Samsung Electronics, Angus Council, Capital & Regional, O2, npower, Credit Suisse and the Scottish Government.

In February 2013 the Carbon Trust introduced the Carbon Trust Water Standard to recognise those companies reducing their water use year on year. The first four companies to receive the Water Standard were Sainsbury's, Coca-Cola, Sunlight Services Group and Branston. [14]

In July 2013 the Carbon Trust introduced the Carbon Trust Waste Standard. [15] In November 2013 the waste standard was awarded to the first wave of organisations, which included The Football Association, Renishaw, Whitbread, PricewaterhouseCoopers and AkzoNobel Decorative Paints. These last three became the first in the world to gain the triple crown of reaching the carbon, water and waste standard.

In 2015, the Carbon Trust launched the Carbon Trust Supply Chain Standard to look at carbon footprints across the supply chain. [16] It is the world's first independent certification for organisations that are measuring, managing and reducing greenhouse gas (CO2e) emissions in their supply chains.

Carbon footprint label

The Carbon Trust helps companies to measure the carbon emissions associated with their products (embodied emissions) and also provides a label for these products carbon footprint. Measuring the embodied emissions of products enables reductions to be identified and achieved across the supply chain. The label demonstrates a commitment by the product owner to reduce that footprint every two years. The Carbon Reduction Label was introduced in March 2007. [17]

Examples of products that have featured the carbon footprint label are Amazon Devices, Evian water, Tetra Pak packaging, Kingsmill bread, Quorn foods, Silver Spoon sugar, Walkers crisps, a range of own brand products in Tesco supermarkets, Halifax (HBOS) bank accounts, Dyson airblades, Marshalls building products, Quaker oats, Lafarge cement, and Pompeian Olive Oil.

The standards behind carbon labelling are now formally recognised through the PAS 2050 developed by the Carbon Trust in conjunction with BSI and Defra. This methodology is now gaining international acceptance following its launch in October 2008. [18]

However, currently[ when? ] this standard has been revised to the PAS 2050: 2011 version, but the Carbon Trust has not received UKAS accreditation. [19]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Energy conservation</span> Reducing energy consumption

Energy conservation is the effort to reduce wasteful energy consumption by using fewer energy services. This can be done by using energy more effectively or changing one's behavior to use less service. Energy conservation can be achieved through efficient energy use, which has some advantages, including a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and a smaller carbon footprint, as well as cost, water, and energy savings.

A green economy is an economy that aims at reducing environmental risks and ecological scarcities, and that aims for sustainable development without degrading the environment. It is closely related with ecological economics, but has a more politically applied focus. The 2011 UNEP Green Economy Report argues "that to be green, an economy must not only be efficient, but also fair. Fairness implies recognizing global and country level equity dimensions, particularly in assuring a Just Transition to an economy that is low-carbon, resource efficient, and socially inclusive."

A sustainable business, or a green business, is an enterprise that has a minimal negative impact or potentially a positive effect on the global or local environment, community, society, or economy—a business that strives to meet the triple bottom line. They cluster under different groupings and the whole is sometimes referred to as "green capitalism". Often, sustainable businesses have progressive environmental and human rights policies. In general, a business is described as green if it matches the following four criteria:

  1. It incorporates principles of sustainability into each of its business decisions.
  2. It supplies environmentally friendly products or services that replace demand for nongreen products and/or services.
  3. It is greener than traditional competition.
  4. It has made an enduring commitment to environmental principles in its business operations.
<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carbon footprint</span> Concept to quantify greenhouse gas emissions from activities or products

A carbon footprint (or greenhouse gas footprint) is a calculated value or index that makes it possible to compare the total amount of greenhouse gases that an activity, product, company or country adds to the atmosphere. Carbon footprints are usually reported in tonnes of emissions (CO2-equivalent) per unit of comparison. Such units can be for example tonnes CO2-eq per year, per kilogram of protein for consumption, per kilometer travelled, per piece of clothing and so forth. A product's carbon footprint includes the emissions for the entire life cycle. These run from the production along the supply chain to its final consumption and disposal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Food miles</span> Distance food is transported from production to consumption

Food miles is the distance food is transported from the time of its making until it reaches the consumer. Food miles are one factor used when testing the environmental impact of food, such as the carbon footprint of the food.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Association for Environment Conscious Building</span> Professional association in the United Kingdom

The Association for Environment Conscious Building (AECB) is the leading network for sustainable building professionals in the United Kingdom. Membership of the AECB includes local authorities, housing associations, builders, architects, designers, consultants and manufacturers. The association was founded in 1989 to increase awareness within the construction industry of the need to respect, protect, preserve and enhance the environment and to develop, share and promote best practice in environmentally sustainable building.

Various energy conservation measures are taken in the United Kingdom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Waste & Resources Action Programme</span>

WRAP is a British registered charity. It works with businesses, individuals and communities to achieve a circular economy, by helping them reduce waste, develop sustainable products and use resources in an efficient way.

Energy Saving Trust is a British organization devoted to promoting energy efficiency, energy conservation, and the sustainable use of energy, thereby reducing carbon dioxide emissions and helping to prevent man-made climate change. It was founded in the United Kingdom as a government-sponsored initiative in 1992, following the global Earth Summit.

The CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme was a mandatory carbon emissions reduction scheme in the United Kingdom which applied to large energy-intensive organisations in the public and private sectors. It was estimated that the scheme would reduce carbon emissions by 1.2 million tonnes of carbon per year by 2020. In an effort to avoid dangerous climate change, the British Government first committed to cutting UK carbon emissions by 60% by 2050, and in October 2008 increased this commitment to 80%. The scheme has also been credited with driving up demand for energy-efficient goods and services.

The carboNZero programme and CEMARS programme are the world’s first internationally accredited greenhouse gas (GHG) certification schemes under ISO 14065. They provide tools for organisations, products, services and events to measure and reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, and optionally offset it. The programmes are owned and operated by Toitū Envirocare - Enviro-Mark Solutions Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Landcare Research.

This is a glossary of environmental science.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Micro-sustainability</span> Individual or small scale sustainability efforts

Micro-sustainability is the portion of sustainability centered around small scale environmental measures that ultimately affect the environment through a larger cumulative impact. Micro-sustainability centers on individual efforts, behavior modification, education and creating attitudinal changes, which result in an environmentally conscious individual. Micro-sustainability encourages sustainable changes through "change agents"—individuals who foster positive environmental action locally and inside their sphere of influence. Examples of micro-sustainability include recycling, power saving by turning off unused lights, programming thermostats for efficient use of energy, reducing water usage, changing commuting habits to use less fossil fuels or modifying buying habits to reduce consumption and waste. The emphasis of micro-sustainability is on an individual's actions, rather than organizational or institutional practices at the systemic level. These small local level actions have immediate community benefits if undertaken on a widespread scale and if imitated, they can have a cumulative broad impact.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Greenhouse gas emissions by the United Kingdom</span> Overview of the greenhouse gas emissions by United Kingdom

In 2021, net greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the United Kingdom (UK) were 427 million tonnes (Mt) carbon dioxide equivalent, 80% of which was carbon dioxide itself. Emissions increased by 5% in 2021 with the easing of COVID-19 restrictions, primarily due to the extra road transport. The UK has over time emitted about 3% of the world total human caused CO2, with a current rate under 1%, although the population is less than 1%.

Sustainable products are products who are either sustainability sourced, manufactured or processed that provide environmental, social and economic benefits while protecting public health and environment over their whole life cycle, from the extraction of raw materials until the final disposal.

Environmental certification is a form of environmental regulation and development where a company can voluntarily choose to comply with predefined processes or objectives set forth by the certification service. Most certification services have a logo which can be applied to products certified under their standards. This is seen as a form of corporate social responsibility allowing companies to address their obligation to minimise the harmful impacts to the environment by voluntarily following a set of externally set and measured objectives.

The North East of England Process Industry Cluster (NEPIC) is an economic cluster developed in accordance with Michael Porter's theories and strategies regarding industrial clusters. The chemistry-using sectors in North East England, where more than 1,400 businesses are headquartered in the industry's supply chain, formed this Process Industry Cluster. In the north-east of England, the industry employs approximately 35,000 direct workers and around 190,000 indirect workers, who collectively account for more than one-third of the area's industrial economy. Companies in the cluster produce 35% of the pharmaceuticals and 50% of the petrochemicals used in the UK, making this area the only net exporter of goods from the country. The area has more than £13 billion in exports.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Resource efficiency</span>

Resource efficiency is the maximising of the supply of money, materials, staff, and other assets that can be drawn on by a person or organization in order to function effectively, with minimum wasted (natural) resource expenses. It means using the Earth's limited resources in a sustainable manner while minimising environmental impact.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CO2balance</span> British profit-for-purpose carbon management consultancy and project developer

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The environmental impact of Big Tech is a phenomenon in which many aspects of Big Tech contribute to negative impacts on the environment and climate change. In the big data age, technologists and people in general find it valuable to view emerging technologies with a critical lens, one of which is geared toward the environment. As these emerging technologies become more popular, they consider the extent at which they contribute to changes in the environment and whether they are inherently positive or negative.

References

  1. ↑ Climate change: the UK programme (PDF). London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office. November 2000. ISBN   978-0-10-149132-7. Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 January 2022.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  2. ↑ Mallaburn, Peter S.; Eyre, Nick (February 2014). "Lessons from energy efficiency policy and programmes in the UK from 1973 to 2013". Energy Efficiency. 7 (1): 23–41. doi:10.1007/s12053-013-9197-7. ISSN   1570-646X. S2CID   154515990.
  3. ↑ "All good things come to an end". The Carbon Trust. 15 June 2023. Archived from the original on 11 January 2024. Retrieved 6 April 2024.
  4. ↑ "Chris Stark to lead the Carbon Trust". The Carbon Trust. 11 January 2024. Archived from the original on 5 February 2024. Retrieved 6 April 2024.
  5. ↑ "The carbon trust Accelerating the move to a low carbon economy. REPORT BY THE COMPTROLLER AND AUDITOR GENERAL | HC 7 Session 2007-2008 | 22 November 2007" (PDF).
  6. ↑ "Carbon Trust Certificate of Incorporation".
  7. ↑ "Carbon Trust accounts 2001/02".
  8. ↑ Falkners, Hugh (2000), Bertoldi, Paolo; de Almeida, Aníbal T.; Falkner, Hugh (eds.), "The UK Energy Efficiency Best Practice Program Lessons Learned", Energy Efficiency Improvements in Electronic Motors and Drives, Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer Berlin Heidelberg, pp. 483–497, doi:10.1007/978-3-642-59785-5_48, ISBN   978-3-540-67489-4 , retrieved 5 March 2021
  9. ↑ "Policy and markets". The Carbon Trust. Retrieved 6 November 2013.
  10. ↑ "Innovation". The Carbon Trust. Retrieved 6 November 2013.
  11. ↑ "Offshore Wind Accelerator" . Retrieved 18 November 2013.
  12. ↑ "Carbon Trust aims to end 'greenwash' by launching company standard". The Guardian . 24 June 2008. Retrieved 6 November 2013.
  13. ↑ "Carbon standard 'to renew trust'". BBC News. 24 June 2008. Retrieved 6 November 2013.
  14. ↑ "Carbon Trust urges business to wake up to water waste". The Carbon Trust. 9 February 2013. Retrieved 18 March 2013.
  15. ↑ "Carbon Trust to take on waste". The Carbon Trust. 3 July 2013. Retrieved 6 November 2013.
  16. ↑ "Leading businesses push boundaries of corporate responsibility into the supply chain". www.carbontrust.com. 30 September 2015. Retrieved 8 April 2023.
  17. ↑ "UK carbon label goods sales 'pass £2bn-a-year mark'". BBC. 13 October 2010. Retrieved 18 March 2013.
  18. ↑ "UKAS Awards First Accreditation for Product Greenhouse Gas Assessment". United Kingdom Accreditation Service. 7 June 2010. Archived from the original on 16 February 2013. Retrieved 18 March 2013.
  19. ↑ "Search UKAS accredited organisations". UKAS. Retrieved 8 April 2023.
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