Welcome

Welcome to my blog about Carbonostics and Sustainability Metrics for the Carbon Neutral future.

I have written several tag lines on this blog, which will probably evolve over time. Carbonostics is different things to different people and I find it difficult to pigeon-hole it into just one category. I will explain all three tag lines in this introductory post:

Balancing Sustainability with Success

We use this sub-title in most of our materials because I believe strongly that a sustainable company must also be successful and profitable. You cannot have a passionate and philanthropic business without a strong and reliable revenue stream. Therefore, there is no point in promoting wonderful concepts of sustainability - like fair trade and biowaste fuel - without proving how these initiatives will make money and keep the business thriving. If your sustainability initiative runs the business into the ground, or damages your brand, then obviously, it is not sustainable. I think that NGOs who talk about sustainability without talking about the financial health of the business are doing a disservice to themselves. Likewise, companies and consultancies who preach sustainability without addressing issues like environmental impact and the wellbeing of employees, are simply operating the nasty practice of "greenwashing". Sustainability must be in concert with Success!

Sustainability Metrics for the Carbon Neutral Future

This is a wonderfully sexy tag line suggested by a friend who has a wildly success brand marketing company. Sustainability Metrics simply means forms of measurement to address sustainability. So, how does a company measure its success in its sustainability initiatives - through metrics. And how does a government impose an environmental mandate to businesses and consumers - through easy-to-understand and easy-to-measure standards. "Easy-to-understand" and "easy-to-measure" are the key phrases here...and much easier said than done. Carbonostics is the very first easy-to-understand, easy-to-use, and affordable metrics tool for the food industry. It is a practical alternative to expensive and time consuming life cycle assessment (LCA) that many larger food companies have been doing for the past year or two. LCA is a wonderful mechanism for defining and measuring environmental impact, but it is extremely complex and expensive, and therefore unattainable and impractical as a long-term measurement tool. Carbonostics solves this problem, and I am proud and excited to say that we are providing a practical solution for the Carbon Neutral future.

Practical Measurement for the Food Industry

This takes us naturally into the next and final tag line. Carbonostics is designed for the food industry - an industry that is responsible for a large part of our environmental footprint, one that is struggling with pressure from consumers, from governments and NGOs, one that is directly affected every time commodity and oil prices fluctuate, one where profit margins tend to be hard won, one that has tremendously complex and long supply chains, and one that is completely at sea when coming to terms with life cycle assessment and environmental impact measurement. LCAs that cost hundreds of thousands of euros and take two or more years are not a practical solution to small or large food companies alike. While the large companies are the ones that are typically doing the LCA work at the moment, they are realizing the tremendous costs and resources needed for this effort and are looking for practical alternatives. Carbonostics is that alternative.

The Tip of the Iceberg

Carbonostics is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the possibility of Sustainability Metrics. Consider a tool that could correlate the reduction in your environmental footprint with employee loyalty. Or measuring the change in consumer satisfaction as you reduce your water footprint. There are endless possibilities that good metrics can achieve from measuring the success of sustainability initiatives, to measuring the strength of your brand in the face of fluctuating commodity prices, to measuring the satisfaction of your farmers against their production outputs.

I hope you'll join me on this fascinating and incredibly evolving journey of Sustainability Metrics. I can be reached directly at sara@carbonostics.com. You can also visit the Carbonostics website at http://www.carbonostics.com/. Read about The Tool, About Us, and what's going on in the Reporting field for the food industry. Enjoy!