What does carbon neutral mean?

Carbon neutrality is a concept closely related to net zero, often used interchangeably with net zero, but the two terms are not one and the same.

The differences between the two terms are as follows:

• Carbon Neutrality is used to refer to projects, companies or products whose direct and indirect CO2 emissions have been balanced with CO2 removals or offsets. 
• Net Zero refers to the global state where strategies are implemented worldwide to reduce all greenhouse gas emissions as close to zero as possible, and then using carbon capture and storage to eliminate the more hard to reduce emissions. 

Companies can claim to be carbon neutral without really aligning their activities with global Net Zero - for instance, by neglecting to tackle other GHG than CO2, or by heavily relying on offset instead of reducing their emissions. Carbon neutrality claims are thus increasingly scrutinized and critiqued.

FAQ

What’s the difference between carbon neutral and net zero?

Carbon neutral focuses on balancing emissions through offsets, while net zero requires deeper, long-term emission reduction strategies with less reliance on using offsets to achieve this goal. However, net zero and carbon neutrality are similar as in both are considered a global objective – meaning no company can claim to be carbon neutral or net zero on their own. 

How can a business become carbon neutral?

No business can ever be truly carbon neutral, as it is a global objective that no company can ever claim to have fully achieved on their own. However, companies can carbon accounting services like Greenly to better monitor, manage, and reduce their carbon emissions. 

How does Greenly help businesses achieve carbon neutrality?

We can’t help companies claim carbon neutrality as it’s impossible to be a carbon neutral company, but Greenly supports companies by calculating emissions, setting realistic reduction goals, and sourcing high-quality offsets aligned with international standards.