NEW ORLEANS (press launch) — Bernhard has introduced that it’s now carbon impartial by way of the deployment of compensation measures offsetting 2022 Scope 1, Scope 2 and choose Scope 3 greenhouse fuel emissions.
“We started our journey by figuring out and quantifying our emissions and selected to spend money on the broader environmental agenda by way of accountable carbon offset purchases as we proceed to analysis and develop Bernhard’s personal local weather motion plan,” mentioned Bernhard Vice President of Surroundings, Social and Governance Alyssa Jaksich.
Monitoring Bernhard’s greenhouse fuel emissions (GHG) has been crucial to the processes wanted to know methods to obtain carbon neutrality and in the end, internet zero standing. The GHG Protocol is a world program that gives requirements, steerage, instruments and coaching for enterprise and authorities to measure and handle climate-warming emissions. They outline three scopes of emissions that correlate to who owns these emissions and the extent of management an entity has to alter these emission ranges.
“We chosen 2021 as our base 12 months and included all utility consumption related to owned and leased places of work, warehouses and fabrication outlets,” mentioned Jaksich. “We additionally included any emissions from our owned and leased fleet gasoline consumption, jet gas consumed by leased plane, and propane and diesel used to energy gear at our fabrication outlets inside our GHG stock.”
Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions are a compulsory a part of reporting for a lot of organizations internationally and relate to methods which might be inside cheap management of an entity, corresponding to onsite and bought vitality of owned belongings.
Scope 3 emissions are centered on sources of emissions which might be extra exterior to a particular group, corresponding to these throughout the availability chain. Reporting of Scope 3 emissions stays largely voluntary, nevertheless, discount of Scope 3 has the potential to have the most important impression.
Changing into a carbon impartial firm has lengthy been a purpose of Bernhard’s ESG efforts, however the final purpose nonetheless lies forward – internet zero.
“As we attempt in the direction of our long-term purpose of changing into internet zero by 2050 or sooner, we plan to make the most of a mix of discount efforts and compensation measures,” Jaksich added. “Whereas we work to develop Bernhard’s local weather motion plan in help of closing the emissions hole, this method permits us to additionally work in the direction of closing the local weather finance hole. By investing in credible carbon offset initiatives all through our journey, we aren’t solely transferring in the direction of an method that does no hurt, however one which actively does good.”
Bernhard’s path to internet zero will observe an “keep away from, cut back and compensate” hierarchy:
- Keep away from: Present desire for enterprise choices and actions that result in prevented greenhouse fuel emissions, thus minimizing the necessity for offsets.
- Scale back: The place emissions can’t be prevented, search to cut back emissions by way of vitality effectivity and optimization of enterprise practices and insurance policies.
- Compensate: The place emissions can’t be diminished or prevented, make the most of offsets to neutralize remaining emissions. Excessive-quality carbon credit can be prioritized by way of Bernhard’s Carbon Offset Coverage.
All through this course of, Bernhard is dedicated to buying offsets yearly in accordance with our Carbon Offset Coverage, whereas constantly evaluating and implementing methods to in the end exhaust our discount efforts.
“Whereas we made nice strides in 2022 by gaining a baseline understanding of our emission-generating actions and uncovering areas the place we may turn into extra sustainable inside our day-to-day operations, there may be nonetheless a lot work to be completed,” Jaksich concluded. “Our path to internet zero is simply starting, however we’re totally dedicated to the journey.”