Organizational Environmental Certifications: The Carbon Footprint Certification

There are two types environmental certifications: self-declarations and declarations recognized by third parties. The latter further diversifies into organizational and product certifications.

Organizational environmental certifications estimate the environmental impact of an entire organization. The Carbon Footprint in particular (also valid for estimating the emissions of a product, service, event or individual), is the parameter which, better than any other, allows to determine the impacts of organizations on the environment, estimating the atmospheric emissions of greenhouse gases generally expressed in tons of CO2 and calculated over the entire life cycle of the system under analysis (from the extraction of raw materials to waste disposal).

Measuring an organization's Carbon Footprint is important for business strategies: in a context that rewards sustainable suppliers more than others, Carbon Footprint can be a tool to enhance one's activities and promote one's social and environmental responsibility policies, according to the ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) criteria. Furthermore, it allows for planning emission reduction measures, through, for example, the use of low-carbon content technologies. These interventions can be further integrated by measures for the neutralization of emissions (carbon neutrality), achievable through compensation activities (e.g. planting of trees, production of renewable energy, ...).
To evaluate the carbon footprint of an organization, there are two international standards, one issued by the WRI/WBCSD (GHG Protocol) and the other by ISO (ISO 14064-1): both require consideration of direct and indirect emissions (these ones coming from the production of electricity and heat that the organization uses).
According to the Italian Ministry of the Environment, the Carbon Footprint certification is perceived by consumers as an index of company quality and sustainability.