It’s been three years’ since Jane Burston founded her innovative social enterprise Carbon Retirement. Since then, the 30 year-old green entrepreneur and her company have won almost a dozen awards and a reputation for providing a reliable method of carbon offsetting for businesses and individuals. But it’s not all been plain sailing. She talks to Louise Bateman about the challenges of being a start-up operating in the world of carbon offsetting.
Q. Where did your motivation to launch Carbon Retirement come from?
A. I’ve always been interested in ethics and the environment. I don’t really know where it comes from, but when I was 11 years old I saw a programme about abattoirs and immediately became a vegetarian. I studied philosophy at Cambridge, where I also became an environmental officer. Then, when I was working as public sector management consultant, I spent a sabbatical year in Zambia and that is when I realised I wanted to work for myself.
Q. You launched Carbon Retirement in July 2008. It was unique at the time. How did it come about?
A. It came out of a conversation between my business partner at the time and myself. We agreed with carbon offsetting in principle but wading through the negative press coverage about it, we realised that most of it was completely valid. Then we came up with this idea, which seemed kind of obvious. We thought why isn’t anyone else doing it?
Q. That idea was to offset unavoidable carbon emissions on behalf of consumers and businesses by 'retiring’ allowances that would otherwise be used by big polluting companies that are regulated by the European Union’s Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). It differs from the traditional model whereby carbon credits are bought and sold to offset carbon emissions in developing countries by funding greenhouse gas emission reduction projects. Neither of these concepts is easy to understand, let alone the ETS. That must have posed a problem for you?
A. Neither of us had a background in marketing and everybody we were talking to thought it was an amazing idea, so that gave us false confidence that everybody understood the approach. We thought all we’d have to do was put up a website. The trouble was there was no standard that we fitted into, no hook to hang the business on. There were about 90 standards for project offsetting, but none of them applied to us. Our other problem was that despite being the largest
policy for reductions, nobody really understood the ETS.
Q. What did you do to overcome this knowledge gap?
A. We realised we had to educate people. We started lunchtime seminars and short courses on carbon offsetting and emissions
trading. We also hold climate change workshops. We produce short information packs as well.
Q. You have been the recipient of a large number of awards since you launched Carbon Retirement. Can you tell me about these and what impact they’ve had on your business?
A. We’ve won 11 awards in the last three years. Half of those have been around ethics and
innovation and more recently they’ve been about general business and highlighting personal success. A recent one was from
Square Mile magazine in which I was named one of the '30 Future Leaders under 30' – unfortunately I’m no longer under 30!
In a practical way, the awards have meant we’ve been able to raise the profile of Carbon Retirement and social enterprise.
Q. How far would you say you have come in terms of raising awareness about what you do?
A. I’d say there is a good awareness about the approach and about Carbon Retirement as a company now. Our name has certainly been a help, but the Government’s Quality Assurance Scheme has also helped publicise what we do.
Q. The Government recently closed this accreditation scheme. What will that mean for your business?
A. I am concerned that for smaller companies it is going to be harder to find us [without the scheme to signpost us], but we are fortunate in that the Climate Change Committee uses Carbon Retirement for offsetting and that provides us with the stamp of credibility we need.
Q. You are also looking to set up your own independent version of the Quality Assurance Scheme, are you not?
A. Yes. We are currently writing up the criteria for an independent third party administrator of the scheme and will launch it as soon as possible.
Q. How many companies are now using your offsetting services and how many of those are smaller companies of the like you say will find it harder to search you out now?
A. We have about 22 clients and I’d say at least 80 per cent are small companies and NGOs.
Q. How many ETS allowances are you now retiring?
A. Off the top of my head, last year we retired about 12,000 allowances.
Q. What do you think needs to happen for you to reach the critical mass to really make a difference?
The price of carbon needs to increase, but to do that we’d need to retire millions of allowances.
Our core aim has to continue to be to provide a way for companies to offset in most measurable way possible, but if we can impact the price of a tonne of carbon in the future that would be great.
Q. What about the Government’s carbon floor price policy – will this have the desired effect or will it just make big energy emitters move to countries outside of Europe that don’t have such tight emissions reduction targets?
A. I would agree with that – it may reduce emissions in the UK, but really it’s a tax on certain fuels. In the UK it might reduce emissions because it will make coal powered energy more expensive, but the answer is for EU to set a floor price.
Q. Do you think the UK Government is doing enough to help businesses cut their emissions?
A. I think it could do more for small businesses – especially now. With the removal of funding from the Carbon Trust,
SMEs have less access to generic advice and models that they can use.
Q. More broadly, how hopeful are you about us reaching a global deal on climate change?
A. I doubt anything significant will be agreed by end of the year. It looks like there will be more of what we saw in Cancun and Copenhagen where there were individual or group pledges, but nothing written into law, which is a concern. But developing countries are getting onto the problem, where we are stalling. For example, eight developing countries are starting their own cap and trade schemes.
Q. So what about the future for Carbon Retirement – where do you think you’ll be in five years time?
A. I see us having a significant share of the UK carbon offset market and a share of the global carbon offset market. I also hope to see is more people understanding the role of carbon credits and carbon trading. The average person still doesn’t know about it.
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