carbon certification for a construction company

Introduction

This page concerns carbon strategies for companies which are involved in the construction and renovation of buildings, from domestic housing to large commercial projects.

It therefore includes design-and-build companies, main contractors, sub-contractors and specialists.

Most buildings create enormous carbon footprints, so construction companies should be acutely aware of the situation and take appropriate action.

Positive messaging and action around environmental issues is becoming increasingly influential during a contract commissioning process and can be hugely motivational to potential building purchasers

Amortisation of carbon debts

With a building having such a high carbon cost and long life-span, it makes sense to amortise the carbon footprint over many years of use.

The easiest way to make this happen is to include the full value of the carbon offset for a building into its sale price. This enables the you to pass full payment to us immediately, so that we can get on with the business of planting tropical trees fully underway from the outset. The building owner then effectively pays off this debt in instalments, over the course of their mortgage.

To give you some idea of the scale of this issue, a medium-sized detached house would typically represent around 70,000 kgC. The total cost of offsetting this carbon is around USD 17,500, amortised over 25 years leads to an annual payment of USD 700. Depending on the local property prices, that typically represents a 1% to 4% increase in mortgage payments.

Whether or not it is feasible or desirable for you to add carbon surcharges to the cost of a building is not the key issue here. The important thing is that you demonstrate your awareness, bring it to the attention of your customers and provide them with the choice.

For construction companies there are three levels of certification.

Carbon aware certification

The entry level of certification for a construction company is carbon aware.

In this scenario, you do not take responsibility for the carbon footprint generated by your company infrastructure or for the constructions that you produce.

Instead, you simply offer your customers the option to offset the carbon footprint when they buy a construction from you.

If a customer chooses not to take up the option, the carbon debt remains unpaid. Becoming carbon aware is therefore not an ideal solution from an environmental perspective, but it is a decent step in the right direction.

A major appeal of this level of certification are that it let’s your customers know that you are taking action on carbon, it typical involves very little direct cost to your company and the offsets can represent a significant source of additional income, as they carry a modest retail margin.

Whether or not it is appropriate or practical for you to offer carbon offsets in this way will depend very much on your brand image, the type of customer that you service and how you fit into the building contract chain.

It is perhaps important to make the point that your carbon aware certification is not affected by the proportion of customers who choose to pay for the carbon offsets. So long as you have introduced them to the concept, that is as far as your obligation goes.

Option 1A

Carbon aware certification for a construction company with surcharges

If you sell more than 10% of your constructions directly to end-users who are not offsetting their consumption and/or to resellers who do not themselves offer offsetting, then you need to provide these customers with the opportunity to directly offset their purchases, by adding optional carbon surcharges to your invoices.

Direct cost to company : USD 500-5000

Option 1B

Carbon aware certification for a manufacturing company without surcharges

If you sell more than 90% of your constructions directly to end-users who are already offsetting their consumption and/or to resellers who already provide carbon offsetting, then you simply need to demonstrate this to us and we will be able to issue you with carbon aware certification.

Direct cost to company : USD 250-1500

Carbon neutral certification

The primary aim of carbon neutral certification is to offset the emissions that are created by your core operation and infrastructure.

For a construction company that usually means assessing the footprint created by your administration staff, offices, transport and associated extras.

Carbon neutral status does not include taking responsibility for the carbon footprint associated with the buildings that you construct (including raw materials, direct staff, equipment and energy input).

Depending on your brand, products and customer expectations, you may also choose to offer your customers the chance to offset the carbon footprint of the constructions that they buy. This can be done in on the voluntary basis described in the carbon free section above or on the more onerous way described in the carbon free section below. But this is not an obligation under carbon neutral certification.

Option 2A

Carbon neutral certification for a construction company

In order to achieve carbon neutral status, it is necessary for us to make an assessment of your carbon footprint. This is a usually a swift and painless process, that can usually be achieved by means of a single phone conversation, but may be more protracted for larger or more unusual organisations.

Direct cost to company : USD 272-520 per employee

Carbon free certification

Carbon free certification is achieved when a construction company takes full responsibility for the carbon footprint created by both its core operation and the buildings that it produces.

In the construction sector, carbon free status is relatively rare. Companies that do achieve this status tend to have their environmental values heavily embedded into their brand strategy and are likely to use it heavily in their promotional materials.

They are also likely to be selling to customers who find carbon free status to be a very powerful motivating factor, whether that be environmentally conscientious individuals or corporations with zero carbon policies.

In construction, the only practicable way to do this is to add a compulsory carbon surcharge to the value of the construction at the point of sale. The purchaser can then raise their capital and pay the full asking price, from which you pass the requisite amount through to us, so that we can plant the appropriate number of tropical trees.

For a larger project, where we will effectively be planting a forest, we can provide you with additional information to support your proposal, visit the customer to explain the projects to them or even invite them out to Africa to visit one of our sites, perhaps in combination with a short safari.

Option 3A

Carbon free certification for a construction company with surcharges

If you sell more than 10% of your constructions directly to end-users who are not offsetting their consumption and/or to resellers who do not themselves offer offsetting, then you will need to take responsibility for the carbon footprints of both your infrastructure and your products. However, only the former represents a direct cost to you.

Direct cost to company : USD 272-520 per employee

Option 3B

Carbon free certification for a construction company without surcharges

If you sell more than 90% of your constructions directly to end-users who are already offsetting their consumption and/or to resellers who already provide carbon offsetting, then you simply need to demonstrate this and we can waive the second part of the qualification, effectively upgrading you from carbon neutral certification to carbon free certification for no additional charge.

Direct cost to company : 272-520 per employee

Frequently asked questions

Before you go any further, here’s a short list of resources from around the website that you might find useful.

• Exactly what do I get out of all this?

• What are the regulatory obligations and guidelines around carbon certification?

• How does CarbonPlanet go about offsetting carbon?

• Can you show me some examples of companies that already do carbon offsetting?

• How do I avoid getting stitched up?