A sustainable individual or organisation is one that doesn’t deplete nature or natural resources faster than they re-generate, doesn’t directly or indirectly destroy natural habitat, and doesn’t compromise the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. In this way, human civilisation can co-exist with nature.

CO2e is the standard measure for carbon footprints. It includes carbon dioxide as well as the other most important greenhouse gases created by human activities that contribute to climate change. These are converted to a much simpler to understand ‘carbon dioxide equivalent’, or CO2e. This makes it possible to track emissions across different activities and industries in a standardised way. It enables consistent comparison between industries, specifications, countries, and time periods while simplifying complex environmental impact assessments into an understandable metric.

Products require energy-intensive manufacturing processes, which traditionally rely on burning fossil fuels such as oil, gas and coal. This releases greenhouse gases into the atmosphere which trap more heat than normal in the atmosphere. This accelerates global climate change – so understanding and reducing a product carbon footprint means you can do something about climate change.

Scope 1 and 2 refer to carbon emissions that an organisation directly controls. Scope 1 is on-site combustion of gas and oil, fuel for company vehicles, industrial usage of greenhouse gases such as CO2, and leakage from units such as refrigeration. Scope 2 refers to the purchase of electricity, steam, heating or cooling that was generated by a third party. Scope 3 emissoins is all other greenhouse gas emissions associated with the activity of an organisation, most notably in their upstream and downstream supply chain. Scope 3 also includes other activities such as business travel, commuting, capital goods, leases, franchises and investments – along with the processing, use and end-of-life of products sold to another organisation or to the end consumer.

Organisations that have signed up to the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTI) are committed to making change in their operations and supply chains to reduce their carbon emissions. This must be in line with the Paris Agreement to limit global warming due to climate change to 1.5oC.

CDP is a not-for-profit charity that runs a system for investors, companies, cities, states and regions to report on their environmental impacts. Through scoring and reporting, they are encouraging transparency to encourage sustainable business operations. Similarly, the GRI covers a range of topics for sustainability reporting.