The way we as people live, move, consume and produce goods generates greenhouse gasses that are rapidly warming the global climate.
If the global average temperature rises by more than 1.5° we will see devastating impacts from climate change, including rampant wildfires, drought, floods, extreme hurricanes, deadly heat waves and food insecurity.
Those impacts are already being felt by people and communities around the world.
We have to reverse our impact on the planet by:
Drastically reducing the amount of carbon1 that we release into the atmosphere.
Increasing the rate at which carbon is removed from the atmosphere.
Companies are carbon neutral when they offset2 as much carbon as they produce. The result is that they don’t have a negative impact on the environment. This is good, but it doesn’t actively fight climate change.
Carbon negative is the term used to describe a product or organisation that removes more greenhouse gasses from the atmosphere than it adds. The sum of its carbon emission is less than zero, making it carbon negative.
This is the best possible position when it comes to measuring your impact on the global climate.
Becoming carbon negative is realistically achievable for many companies, including almost all major producers of consumer goods and at CO2negative we believe it should be a priority for all companies.
1Because carbon dioxide is the most common and problematic of the greenhouse gasses ‘carbon’ is used as a shorthand for all greenhouse gasses.
2A carbon offset is when you invest in efforts to either remove carbon from the atmosphere, or reduce the rate at which carbon is emitted somewhere other than your own business.