Companies now have an easier way to reach environmentally-conscious consumers with “Climate Neutral Certified” labels — labels that will verify a brand’s net-zero carbon footprint. Launched by Climate Neutral, the certification process encourages brands to measure, reduce, and offset the carbon emissions resulting from the design, production, and shipping of their products and services. Labels will begin appearing on the packaging, hang tags, and websites of certified brands in early 2020.

Companies that elect to become Climate Neutral Certified are required to achieve a net-zero carbon footprint for the company’s upstream and downstream greenhouse gas emissions. Once the certification process is complete, a company may use the Climate Neutral Certified label across all consumer channels. 

“Consumer brands today offer many credentials to a prospective buyer, but none of them directly addresses the brand’s climate impact,” said Austin Whitman, CEO of Climate Neutral. “Even worse, most brands don’t know how much they contribute to climate change. Climate Neutral exists to address both of these gaps so that we can make headway in the climate crisis.”

Climate Neutral is an independent non-profit organisation, recently launched as a collaboration between Peak Design and Brooklyn-based BioLite, an innovator in off-grid clean energy solutions.

“Carbon labeling by itself will not solve all our climate problems,” said Peter Dering, CEO of Peak Design and a co-founder of Climate Neutral. “But by enabling consumers to make informed purchasing decisions, labeling can play a crucial role in encouraging businesses to take full responsibility for their carbon expenditure and apply a long-overdue price to carbon.”