What is Carbon Neutral? Baby Step to Climate Change Solution

You might have heard about plans that are being created all over the world to become carbon neutral. People, companies and even countries are creating their plan to become carbon neutral in the foreseeable future. I have done extensive reading on the subject to ease my fears and I see hope!

The term Carbon Neutral refers to when the sum of carbon emitted into and removed from the environment (as a cause of the actions of an entity like a person) is equal to zero.

Carbon Emitted + Carbon Removed = 0

Keep reading to find out why this is important, how it is calculated and some surprising success stories!

The Problem With Too Much Carbon

Straight off the top, I should mention that although there are terms like “carbon neutral” and “carbon offsetting”, carbon is not the only gas that is problematic.

Greenhouse gases (GHG) consist of carbon dioxide 82%, methane 10%, Nitrous Oxide 6% and Fluorinated Gases 3%. Carbon is the main element in both carbon dioxide and methane so can be held accountable for 92% of the GHGs. Hence the tendency to use carbon and GHG synonymously.

As a result of the “advances” in technology, humans have acquired a lifestyle that generates a significant amount of greenhouse gases that are emitted into the environment. This increased amount of GHG emissions is too much for the trees and soil to absorb as they naturally would.

The build up of gases around the earth does not allow the heat to escape from the earth but does allow sunlight to pass in. It is analogous to a greenhouse where the glass windows allow the sunlight in while trapping the heat inside.

With more GHGs emitted the gaseous layer is thickening causing even less heat to escape. As the world heats up, ice melts which causes the world to heat up at an even faster rate.

Carbon Neutral Promises

The change in weather patterns, destruction from droughts, endangered species and devastation from flooding can all be contributed to the rising global climate. Carbon neutral policies and promises are on the agenda for many countries, companies (large and small) and even citizens around the world.

Citizens can calculate their carbon footprint using a personal carbon footprint calculator. This takes into account where they live, gas and hydro consumption from their utility bills, cars used, flights taken, eating habits and other lifestyle options.

The target world target for a personal carbon footprint is 2 metric tons of CO2e. The average in the United States is 16.49 – 8 times above this target. There are so many things that are involved in a personal carbon footprint but by calculating it, a citizen can determine how much carbon to offset to become carbon neutral.

Similarly, a company carbon footprint calculator can be used to determine the carbon footprint of a company. Many companies have set goals to be carbon neutral giving them a carbon neutral certification. They can reduce their carbon emissions by evaluating their choices in terms how they are producing their products, where they are sourcing their materials, energy use within their company and so on.

Once a company has done everything they can to reduce their carbon footprint, they can purchase carbon offsets to match their emissions. For example, Google invests in enought carbon offsetting projects to remove the same amount of carbon they are directly responsible for. They have been carbon neutral since 2007.

Other people and organizations that have made a serious commitment to becoming carbon neutral include major conferences and conventions, Wells Fargo, Patagonia, HSBC and the world bank. Many airlines offer the passenger a simple way to purchase offsets for their flights and other airlines like JetBlue are offsetting all of their flights.

Being carbon neutral doesn’t necessarily mean that a carbon neutral company is reducing their emissions. If it is costing the company more money in offsets to have those emissions, it would be in their best interest financially to try to reduce the amount that they are emitting in the first place.

Even a country can be carbon neutral. There are two countries in the world that are presently carbon neutral. Bhutan and Suriname. Each country has a population of under 1 million people.

Bhutan’s carbon neutral status is highly attributed to the fact that 70% of the country is woodland that acts as a carbon sink. These forests of Bhutan absorb more carbon dioxide than the population of Bhutan emits making it a carbon negative country. They take the world’s climate change seriously and have laws in place to protect their forests and have promises to have 100% organic agriculture and be waste-free by 2030.

Trees Are Earth’s Natural Defense To Gas

Trees need carbon dioxide to live. We have a symbiotic relationship with trees, we produce their air and they produce ours. But not only have humans significantly increased the amount of CO2 in the environment from burning fossil fuels and planes and factories but we have also removed a significant amount of the forests that help convert that CO2 into oxygen.

Trees also help the soil to capture significant amounts of CO2.

A recent scientific study reports that if we can restore a forest the size of the United States, we can “erase” nearly 100 years of carbon emissions. Tom Crowther, the author of the report “The global tree restoration potential” from ETH Zürich states that forest restoration is the best climate change solution at the moment.

But trees take time. We need to protect the trees that already exist by curbing our addiction to fossil fuels and find some clean energy solutions in the meantime.

It can be found that half the potential to restore forests can be done in just 6 countries; Russia, USA, Canada, Australia, Brazil and China (not surprisingly the 6 largest countries).

Trees that grow in urban areas are growing 25% faster than trees in rural areas. This sounds like a good thing but the faster a tree grows, the faster it will die.

The key to reforestation is to create biodiverse areas for trees and other plants to grow together.

Research in Carbon Neutral Cars

Is it possible to create a carbon neutral car? Even electric vehicles have a carbon footprint and are not sustainable. Plus they require electricity which in many areas is not sustainable. On top of that, there is the manufacturing of the battery and components that cause emissions.

The carbon footprint of an electric vehicle is 40% less than that of an internal combustion vehicle. This is lower in areas that have green electricity. But is it enough to reduce the emissions from roads by the 20% required?

Several car companies have committed to electrifying their fleets. BMW and Volkswagen are among the big companies that are redesigning and launching their fully electric models within the next 10 years. VW also committed to making their entire company carbon neutral including offices, factories and cars.

But the demand for lithium ion batteries used in electric vehicles is quickly growing and there isn’t currently a good technology to reuse and remanufacture the old ones. There is the possibility that we don’t have enough resources to keep up with the demand.

Ready to Calculate Your Carbon Footprint?

There are many carbon footprint calculators available for free on the internet. If you have access to your utility bills websites, you could easily calculate your carbon footprint within 15 minutes depending on which calculator you choose.

I have tried 3 different calculators. They generally gave the same results so I can’t speak to how accurate each one it. They also all gave me a summary of the areas in my life that are potentially causing the emissions from my lifestyle.

I think my favourite one was the carbonfootprint.com calculator. It required more details about my lifestyle but it gave a more detailed summary in the end. Each major area was summarized so I was able to go an edit those areas and easily see the changes reflected which was a good way for me to hypothetically reduce my footprint.

I know clearly know where I am wasteful and what I can work on. I guess I won’t be traveling as often but I think this is an exciting new era for me.