ISO14064

Why Does Your Company Need the ISO 14064 Certification?

What Are Greenhouse Gases?

ISO 14064 emerged to standardize the measurement, reporting, and verification processes of companies’ greenhouse gas emissions as a result of global warming and climate change.

Greenhouse gases are gases that originate from natural sources or human activities. They allow radiation from the Sun to reach the Earth while keeping the radiation reflected from the surface in the atmosphere. Thanks to these properties, greenhouse gases create a "greenhouse effect" in the atmosphere, leading to an increase in the Earth's surface temperature. The main greenhouse gases include carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), and fluorinated gases.

What Are the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Methods for Your Company?

Implementation of ISO 14064: The ISO 14064 standard provides a framework for businesses to measure, report, and verify their greenhouse gas emissions accurately and transparently. Implementing this standard helps organizations set their emission reduction targets and achieve these goals.

Increasing Energy Efficiency: Companies can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by lowering energy consumption. This includes steps such as using energy-efficient lighting and equipment, better insulating buildings, or participating in energy efficiency programs.

Utilization of Renewable Energy: Companies can reduce emissions by transitioning to renewable energy sources like solar, wind, hydroelectric, or biomass. Establishing their own renewable energy systems or purchasing renewable energy from suppliers can be part of this method.

Optimizing Production Processes: Optimizing and improving production processes is an effective way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Using more efficient production technologies, reducing the use of raw materials, or establishing recycling and waste management programs can be considered in this context.

Optimizing Transportation: Companies can lower greenhouse gas emissions by optimizing transportation activities. Upgrading vehicle fleets, opting for lower-emission vehicles, implementing flexible work arrangements such as telecommuting or working near the workplace, and sustainable supply chain management can be parts of this strategy.

Investing in Decarbonization Projects: Companies can lower their greenhouse gas emissions by investing in decarbonization projects. These may include reforestation, participating in carbon offset programs, or investing in carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies.

Establishing Environmental Management Systems: Companies can set up an integrated environmental management system to manage and reduce their environmental impacts. Creating sustainability policies, establishing a greenhouse gas inventory, and regularly monitoring and reporting greenhouse gas emissions are part of this system.

What is ISO 14064?

ISO 14064 is an international standard for the management of greenhouse gas emissions. This standard provides guidance to organizations on accurately measuring, reporting, verifying, and managing greenhouse gas emissions. ISO 14064 is used to assess environmental performance and track efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This standard helps companies develop strategies to reduce their environmental impact and achieve sustainability goals.

ISO 14064-1: Includes guidance and features on how organizations should calculate and report their greenhouse gas emissions and removals. This helps companies accurately identify their own emissions and understand their environmental impacts.

ISO 14064-2: Provides guidance on how to measure the effect of a specific project or activity on greenhouse gas emissions. This assists companies in evaluating the environmental impact of a specific project or activity and making project plans more sustainable.

ISO 14064-3: This section covers the verification and approval processes of greenhouse gas declarations. This process ensures that external stakeholders can trust the accuracy of the company's reports, enhancing transparency and reliability.

What is the Importance of the ISO 14064 Standard and Its Benefits to Companies?

Accurate and Transparent Measurement and Reporting: Provides guidance to companies on accurately measuring, reporting, and certifying greenhouse gas emissions. This helps companies understand their environmental impacts and develop strategies to reduce these impacts.

International Recognition and Reputation: Being an international standard gives companies recognition and reputation on a global scale. This assists companies in proving their sustainability efforts and gaining the trust of stakeholders.

Legal Compliance and Risk Management: Helps in complying with environmental regulations. Thus, companies can fulfill their legal obligations while mitigating environmental risks and managing environmental compliance processes.

Efficiency and Cost Savings: Encourages efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, which leads to more efficient use of energy and resources. Thus, companies can reduce both their environmental impact and operating costs.

Market Competitiveness and Responding to Customer Demands: As environmental sustainability becomes increasingly important, ISO 14064 certification provides market competitiveness to companies. With the growing environmental awareness among customers, demand for ISO 14064 certified companies may also rise.

Stakeholder Confidence and Business Relationships: ISO 14064 helps stakeholders (customers, suppliers, investors, etc.) feel confident about environmental performance. This strengthens business relationships and enhances trust in sustainable business practices.

Your Company’s ISO 14064 Implementation Process

Let’s reiterate that the process of obtaining the ISO 14064 certification proves that a company fulfills the processes of calculating, reporting, verifying, and certifying its greenhouse gas emissions. Basically, to examine the implementation process of this certification by your organization in the simplest way:

An initial research should first be conducted by the relevant departments (sustainability, environment, business development, innovation). Through this preliminary research, the primary purpose of ISO 14064 should be fundamentally defined in connection with the company.

Then, experts from the same departments should create an insight scheme to determine the paths the company will take in measuring, reporting, and verifying its current greenhouse gas emissions.

After the insight is developed, it is necessary to identify any gaps in the process. These gaps could include any moments of pause in the supply chain of a product, characteristics of the protective boxes in the transportation process of the product, and other details that come to mind. Once these gaps are identified, efforts should begin to address the deficiencies. Necessary data should be requested from all companies that are intermediaries or stakeholders outside the company.

After all the data is compiled, the required emissions should be calculated with ISO 14064 compliant data. This is exactly where CarbonSmart comes in...

The reporting process can then be created after it is confirmed that your data is verifiable.

Next, a certification body should be selected for the validation of your documents.

Once a certification body is selected, it will carry out an external audit to evaluate the company's compliance with the ISO 14064 standard. The accuracy of the calculated emissions is crucial during this process. The data must never be erroneous.

A company deemed suitable by the external audit can obtain the ISO 14064 certificate.

After the certificate is obtained, the relevant department, which includes experts, should pay attention to internal audits and data, continuously renew itself, monitor existing deposits, and implement sustainability steps. The certifying body will continue to conduct audits at specified intervals.

CarbonSmart

CarbonSmart is with you from A to Z in your ISO 14064 process! With the carbon footprint management platform, you can automatically enter your data, calculate it according to standards, and generate your reports in real time. Furthermore, with CarbonSmart’s AI-supported IoT solutions, you can also reduce your carbon footprint. You can contact us for more detailed information.

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