Become part of the Arctic Climate Protection Network
Establish your Arctic Climate Footprint to demonstrate leadership in slowing Arctic warming and position your company to take advantage of the emerging Arctic climate market. This footprint is the baseline against which you can measure success toward becoming Arctic Climate Neutral. It will also set you up to transform your mitigation efforts into valuable market credits under the new Arctic Climate Action Registry, hosted by the Climate Institute and the American Carbon Registry.
SCS draws from our expertise as an environmental claims certifier, life cycle assessment (LCA) practitioner, and GHG verifier for international carbon registries to offer the world’s first Arctic Climate Footprint certification. Using advanced LCA metrics that reflect the most up-to-date climate science, we will help you gauge your current performance, assess the costs and benefits of various improvement options, and verify progress toward your climate protection goals.
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All companies have an Arctic Climate Footprint, whether they operate in the Arctic or not. In today's global market, products, materials and supplies are regularly transported by air or ship through or near the Arctic, resulting in the release of short-lived but highly potent emissions, such as black carbon and precursors to tropospheric ozone. Simultaneously, GHG emissions from sources far from the Arctic can transport into the region, including methane, one of the chief culprits in Arctic climate change.
Companies can turn this fact into an opportunity by documenting reductions in their direct Scope 1 emissions, by working with their upstream supply chains to reduce Scope 2 and Scope 3 impacts, and by sponsoring Verified Offset Projects through the purchase of credits to become Arctic Climate Neutral.
The Arctic Climate Footprint is calculated using advanced LCA metrics that factor in the latest knowledge about factors influencing climate change in the Arctic along with the timeframe within which impacts are occurring. These metrics are included in a new LCA standard, LEO-SCS-002, being finalized under the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) process.
SCS provides a full suite of LCA services for companies who wish to establish their environmental impact profiles to support internal decision-making or public claims. In addition, SCS is accredited to:
An Arctic Climate Footprint summarizes the impacts of a particular product, system, or service on climate in the Arctic region. The footprint is measured using advanced LCA, based on regional impacts and integrating the near-term timeframes within which these impacts are projected to occur. It is the basis against which impact reductions can be measured and offset credits can be established.
Conventional carbon footprints are focused on global-level impacts based primarily on CO2 and long-lived greenhouse gases (GHGs), generally over a 100-year timeframe. Under the Arctic metrics, methane reduction is valued much higher than it is under conventional global registries, due to the fact that the timeframe within which impacts are occurring is near-term. In addition, companies can earn credits for reductions of short-lived black carbon and ozone forming aerosols, neither of which are included in traditional global registries.
Companies who become Arctic Climate Neutral zero out their Arctic Climate budgets by mitigating emissions or instituting climate cooling measures that can be independently verified, or by sponsoring verified Arctic Climate Offset projects through the purchase of credits through the Arctic Climate Action Registry (ACAR). By making serious strides toward the goal of becoming Arctic Neutral, companies can become part of ACAR’s Arctic Climate Protection Network, and publicly assert their leadership efforts.
A wide array of projects can be considered, including projects that reduce emissions as well as project that prevent the release of methane hydrates, increase reflectivity, or otherwise help to keep the Arctic climate cool.
The American Carbon Registry (ACR), ACAR's partner, will begin development of the transactional registry in 2013, after which projects will be accepted formally into the process in a pilot phase. In the meantime, SCS can help you establish your Arctic Climate Footprint, help you undertake a pre-assessment review of planned or current mitigation projects to serve as pilots for the registry, and certify your current impact reductions.