Who’s Counting the Carbon? An Alliance for Climate Action

Sustainability Solved

In this episode, Andrew Griffiths, co-founder of the Carbon Accounting Alliance, sheds light on the Alliance’s mission to tackle sustainability challenges through collaboration. Backed by over 100 organisations and businesses, including Green Element and Compare Your Footprint, Andrew explains the Alliance's focus on promoting best practices and robust standards.

Interested businesses can easily join the Carbon Accounting Alliance by filling out a quick form. The process is open and accessible, aiming to create a supportive community without any current costs involved.

Highlights:

Carbon Accounting 101:

· Andrew simplifies carbon accounting, likening it to financial accounting – but with carbon instead of money! He explains the process of measuring carbon, the significance of carbon factors, and provides insights into achieving net-zero.

· Andrew discusses the Alliance’s primary objectives including policy alignment, standards, technical coherence, and communications to drive positive change.

· As of last month, the Carbon Accounting Alliance had measured a staggering 587,000,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent and reported 6,000,000 tonnes of reductions.

Challenges and Solutions for Carbon Accounting:

• Andrew delves into data collection as a barrier for organisations looking to manage their carbon footprint. He discusses governmental policy recommendations and initiatives like Project Perseus for seamless and automated data gathering.
• The UK government has shown genuine interest in the Alliance’s proposals, signalling a potential bridge between business-led action and policy change.
• The Carbon Accounting Alliance plans to streamline data collection, analysis, and assurance using technologies like open banking but for carbon data.

Collaboration is Key:

• Andrew drives home the importance of collaboration in the industry and creating a safe space for professionals to connect, collaborate, and share experiences openly.
• For the Carbon Accounting Alliance, success in the next 12 months relies on collaboration, influencing policy makers, and engaging with standards like ISO and net-zero guidelines to drive change.

This episode of Sustainability Solved is sponsored by Business Declares, a not-for-profit business network who inspire, encourage, and accelerate action within businesses to address the climate, ecological, and social emergency.

They are an active network of 100+ businesses who back our commitments to reach net-zero, restore and protect nature, and advocate for regulatory change.

Join Business Declares as a member to get help accelerating your action on net-zero targets and on nature targets for your business from the network. Find out more here: Business Declares