SCM Connections Goes Green(er)
At least in the logo, SCMC has been green from the beginning. But as wildfires continue to rage, hurricanes become more severe, and floods sweep through communities around the world, we recognize the need to go a little greener. Increasingly, scientists link these disastrous natural phenomena to the warming of our atmosphere from carbon emissions.
SCMC is a boutique consulting firm. Many of our employees work remotely, we don’t own any buildings or office space, and we don’t make or ship any consumer goods. Typically, these are the areas businesses look to in efforts to reduce their carbon emissions. But for us, the vast majority of our own carbon emissions come from travel – we try to minimize it, but there are times when in-person client visits are inevitable. And until flights, hotels, and transportation all become carbon-free, we’re at the mercy of the travel industry.
Though the travel industry still relies heavily on carbon, there are ways to travel more sustainably. For one, various airlines take measures to reduce their footprint, from reducing single-use plastic use to investing in more aerodynamic plane design to using hybrid “eco-fuel.” Hotels are taking steps as well, with big name brands reducing waste and water usage, eliminating plastic packaging, and powering their facilities with renewable energy. And of course, using public transportation to get around on business trips remains an easy, inexpensive way to reduce emissions.
So, in 2021, SCMC has made the decision to offset our carbon emissions from travel. To do so, we’ve chosen to partner with Carbonfund. But finding the right offset seller was no easy task. Through weeks of research, we learned what our options were, what to look for, and what to avoid.
First, we realized that we needed a carbon offset seller with projects verified by third parties like the American Carbon Registry, Verified Carbon Standard, or Climate Action Reserve. We needed a firm that could cater towards smaller businesses; one that sold offsets on the scale of tens and hundreds rather than thousands or even tens of thousands each year. We also sought a firm that let us choose the project our offsets went to, offered projects based in the US, and disclosed how they calculate emissions and much of each dollar spent went to the offset project versus overhead. And, we hoped to find projects which achieved a positive long-term impact, seeking phrases like “additionality” and “co-benefits” in a partner. In all these ways, we aimed to ensure that our offsets truly made a difference in reducing carbon in or removing carbon from the atmosphere.
We chose Carbonfund because they checked all these boxes, plus a few extra. In our own personal experience, they were easy to contact and accommodating of our carbon goals and needs as a small business, and their approach to offsetting resonated with us: reduce what you can, offset what you can’t. Which brings us back to our travel emissions. What more can we do to reduce our carbon footprint?
We’re excited to start offsetting, and plan to continue to find ways to reduce our overall emissions. And, looking further to the future, we’re considering completing a three-scope carbon inventory to calculate and offset all carbon emissions for which SCMC is responsible (rather than just those from travel) to achieve complete carbon neutrality. We advise you to explore which offsetting options could be most helpful for your own organization, and help us continue to explore the ways we can all move forward together, responsibly.
