News

We are delighted to see the print and paper sector is stepping up to the challenge of climate change, 'Counting the cost of carbon' (PrintWeek, 22 August).

At The Carbon Neutral Company we have been working with pioneering companies wanting to take action to reduce their carbon footprint for over 10 years – long before carbon became ‘the currency of the moment’.

Throughout that time we have been committed to the highest standards – for example developing The Carbon Neutral Protocol in 2002 – in the absence of any international agreements.

Carbon footprinting is a complex area – particularly around boundary-setting. In our work with the paper sector we have conducted emissions assessments for paper mills, printing facilities, and paper merchants as well as life-cycle emissions for specific products – each of which will necessarily have a different boundary.

The article states that we calculated a printer’s carbon footprint using ‘a method that failed to take into account more than a small part of the scope and lifecycle of the factory and its raw materials’. An assessment of a print factory would not take into account the impacts of all raw materials used in the factory because this would be outside the scope of the assessment. Where we have conducted full-product lifecycle assessments we have worked with the Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Management – which was involved in the development of the PAS2050 - using the same principles on which the BPIF says its calculator is based.

As a private firm we would not expect to lead on standard settings. Our role has been to catalyse the market and provide early robust solutions. Where independent bodies emerge to set new standards in the area of carbon management, we actively support them – it’s not competition, it’s complementary to what we do. We welcome the BPIF’s initiative to develop an ‘industry standard’ footprinting methodology and once it is launched and we have had a chance to review it, in principle we would be happy to adopt it.

We look forward to applying the BPIF methodology with increasing numbers of companies within the paper and print sector.

Bill Sneyd, Director, Advisory Services, The Carbon Neutral Company