The business of being green, as many firms will have discovered, is far from black and white. One would expect that recent headlines of Australian media conglomerate News Limited becoming a carbon zero company would be well received, but on the contrary, it drew much public criticism and scrutiny within social media networks.
This is the new business landscape that many companies now have to contend with - one with an increasingly environmentally-aware public and discerning consumers.
In the case of News Limited, when it made its eco-friendly claims, Eco-Business readers jumped on it, picking each claim to pieces and scouring the company’s website for evidence of green-washing.
Green-washing refers to the practice of making false or exaggerated sustainability claims.
The firm’s chairman and chief executive John Hartigan said the company had achieved carbon neutral status and was well on its way to achieving its goal of a 20 per cent reduction in carbon emissions. So far, it has attained 18.4 per cent, 10 per cent of which was from the purchase of carbon certificates.
Carbon credits or certificates allow companies to offset their own carbon emissions by purchasing tradable certificates awarded to verified emissions-reducing entities such as renewable energy providers or energy efficiency programmes.
Eco-Business readers weren’t ready to take anything at face value. They demanded more details:
How can the company be carbon neutral with less than a 20 per cent reduction? Paper, they pointed out, has an extremely high carbon footprint. Have they included it in their supply chain? What was the company’s original carbon emission profile anyway?
Readers pasted segments from News Limited’s websites with details on the audit process, which triggered more questions: what type of credits did they buy and how many? Why did they only cover scopes I and II? Paper is covered only in scope III audits. Who were these auditors?
When contacted by Eco-Business, Dr Tony Wilkins, manager of environment and climate change for News Limited, gave some answers.
The firm’s current energy auditor is a Canberra-based energy efficiency consultancy called Exergy.
News Limited uses the Greenhouse Gas Protocol established by the World Resources Institute and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development. The method defines boundaries to help companies prioritise the areas of focus that are primarily under their control.
This is where scopes I, II, and III come in. Currently companies are considered carbon neutral if they qualify under scopes I and II of the Greenhouse Gas Protocol corporate standards, which were adopted by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in 2006.
The GHG Protocol defines scope I as all direct emissions, which include all emissions that are immediately under a company’s control, such as emissions from its own transport fleet or factories.
Indirect emissions, meaning emissions that result from a company’s activities but are not under its direct control, are divided between scopes II and III.
Scope II includes indirect emissions from the consumption of electricity, heat or steam.
Other indirect emissions, such as emissions resulting from a supply chain or outsourced transport or waste disposal, fall under scope III and are voluntary.
News Limited qualified under scopes I and II, thus complying with GHG Protocol and ISO standards. They voluntarily threw in emissions from business air travel, a scope III emission. Their newsprint supply also falls under scope III, and as such is not included in News Limited’s emissions profile.
Eco-Business readers were correct to point out that paper supply, with its hefty carbon footprint, is not a part of News Limited’s carbon zero achievement. But that’s not to say that the company isn’t addressing the problem. Sustainability is an on-going effort for the company, said Dr Wilkins, and News Limited is in the process of implementing a green procurement policy.
Its newsprint supplier is Norske Skog, which came in at number 10 on the Carbon Disclosure Project’s 2010 list of international corporations that provide sustainability reports (News Limited came in first in its sector).
Their website provides extensive information on certified sustainable forestry and chain of custody certificates, as well as statistics on the recycled newsprint it uses. It turns out Australians, with a recycling rate of 78 per cent, are excellent recyclers of newspapers.
Norkse Skog has its own emissions reduction target. It is aiming for a 25 per cent reduction in emissions by 2020. One of the ways it hopes to accomplish this is through the use of geothermal power at its New Zealand mill, which according to Dr Wilkins, supplies about 20 per cent of Australia’s newsprint. Another 70 per cent comes from Australia’s Albury and Boyer mills, which use 33 per cent and 9 per cent recovered paper respectively in their newsprint production.
To answer some of the other questions that Eco-Business readers raised, News Limited purchased and permanently retired carbon credits that were certified under one of three standards: the Voluntary Carbon Standard, the World Wildlife Fund’s Gold Standard or the Climate Action Reserve.
News Limited seems to have abundant evidence to back up their green business claims, but not every corporation can say the same.
In the words of one reader: “…’greenwashing’ seems to have become a common trait which companies are getting away with due to an uninformed / uneducated public…it is a dangerous game as it can come back and bite them.”
It prompts an important question: what about the companies that are making a genuine effort to lead the way in sustainable business practices? Is an overly skeptical public discouraging companies from presenting themselves as green businesses leaders?
It shouldn’t.
Business leaders say they are used to the mixed blessing that publicity represents. Beyond the old adage ‘all publicity is good publicity,’ public scrutiny is a good thing. As more companies jump on the green business bandwagon, the public needs to learn how to discern the sincere sustainability leaders from companies seeking easy public relations solutions. Simple fact checking and asking for independent sources to verify claims is a step in the right direction.
A discerning public and consumer base can force companies to embrace transparency and be honest about their green business claims.
Green business claimants such as News Limited may sweat while under the spotlight, but if they have done the work and their statements hold up, the firms’ image and credibility will receive a boost in the long run.
That, after all, is the business of being green.
