Decarbonisation strategy and carbon offsetting: how does it work?

At the time of energy transition, companies have a major role to play in protecting the environment and the climate. To this end, decarbonisation represents one of the greatest challenges of the years to come. Indeed, the European Union has set itself the objective of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050, and in this context has committed itself to reducing its net emissions by at least 55% by 2030 compared to 1990. Companies, as major players, have a crucial role to play in this process and can take action, especially by implementing a decarbonisation strategy. But what exactly is it and how can it be implemented?

Regardless of your sector of activity, most of your activities lead directly or indirectly to greenhouse gas emissions. Implementing a decarbonisation strategy allows you to reduce your carbon emissions as much as possible. And if some of them are residual and therefore persistent despite the means deployed to reduce them, it is nevertheless possible to offset them. Here are some explanations.

The decarbonisation strategy: between environmental challenge and economic opportunity

For a company, the objective of a decarbonisation strategy is to reduce its CO2 emissions. Far from being anecdotal, such a system should be considered in the long term because it needs to be deployed over several years so that the impact of the actions implemented can be seen and measured.

Implementing this strategy contributes to the national objective of reducing the carbon footprint but also presents economic opportunities for your company. Indeed, this strategic vision of decarbonisation can easily be transformed into a competitive criterion. For example, you can equip yourself with modern and efficient production tools that will reduce your environmental impact, an asset that you can use to stand out. Moreover, these efforts, recognised by your current or potential clients, can enable you to enhance your image and assert your CSR positioning.

So reducing your carbon footprint is synonymous with energy efficiency. You can save your business from dependence on fossil fuels and also from the volatility of energy prices, while gaining more control over your energy supply. All in all, this represents an opportunity to generate savings.

Depending on your activity and your objectives, the actions to be implemented as part of your decarbonisation strategy can be numerous and more or less extensive. Here are some examples for your information:

• Replace your fleet of vehicles with electric vehicles
• Replace your production machines with newer, more energy-efficient machines
• Encourage sustainable mobility for your employees (provision of bicycles, etc.)
• Use renewable energy
• Install photovoltaic panels on your site to produce and consume your own energy
• Review your digital devices
• Implement eco-gestures (recycling, lights, etc.)
• Favour short purchasing circuits and, ideally, opt for suppliers who have also implemented a decarbonisation strategy

Conducting a carbon footprint

Are you now convinced and want to implement a decarbonisation strategy? So where do you start?

The first step is to conduct your carbon footprint, which consists of counting the greenhouse gas emissions of your activity. This will allow you to study your business activity and assess its dependence on fossil fuels.

Depending on your activity sector, the perimeter within which your greenhouse gas emissions are studied will be more or less vast. To designate these perimeters, we will use the term “scopes”, ranging from 1 to 3:

• Scope 1: corresponds to the most restricted perimeter and groups together the emissions directly linked to the manufacture of your product.
• Scope 2: includes indirect emissions linked to the energy consumption necessary for the manufacture of your product. This includes the greenhouse gas emissions generated by the production of energy.
• Scope 3: corresponds to the broadest scope and includes all emissions, including indirect ones, for example those linked to the extraction and transport of raw materials.

The role of these scopes is to identify the source of your greenhouse gas emissions, and thus to know at what level and how to act to reduce them.

At the end of this study and thanks to the collection of data, an assessment of your current situation is drawn up, which gives you an overview of the most important sources of emissions in your company, and to react accordingly by deploying concrete actions.

To conduct this assessment, we work closely with the energieagence, and offer you the monitoring of your greenhouse gas emissions according to the Bilan Carbone® method of the ADEME (Agence de l’Environnement et de la Maîtrise de l’Energie).

What is carbon offsetting?

Any activity necessarily generates CO2. And even with a decarbonisation strategy in place, residual emissions remain. Indeed, the objectives set out in such a strategy may take years to be achieved, and even if the residual emissions decrease over time if all the actions are carried out, some will always remain. In fact, you cannot achieve carbon neutrality without going through a carbon offsetting stage, which allows you to compensate for these residual emissions.

But how does it work? Through the principle of offsetting, the environmental impacts caused by greenhouse gas emissions can be neutralised by reducing them elsewhere on Earth. To do this, you have the opportunity to engage in the development of sustainable projects around the world. These projects support and promote ecology in all its forms (sustainable agriculture, reforestation, protection of nature reserves) as well as the development of renewable energy. You can discover our portfolio of projects here.

Enovos supports you in this process with the eno4climate solution, through which we bring you our know-how and expertise in terms of carbon footprint compensation.

So if you wish to act for the environment while promoting the economic development of your company, do not hesitate to contact us to set up your decarbonisation strategy.

The information and data contained in this article are certified as correct and valid at the time of writing. If the article is consulted at a later date, the information and data may be out of date.