Carbon Neutral expands consultancy services offering

An introduction to Dr Ahmad Rashedi

Carbon Neutral is delighted to announce the appointment of Dr Ahmad Rashedi as the company’s Head of Carbon and Sustainability.

Measuring the impact of emissions on the environment and society is an essential step in becoming more sustainable. In his new role, Ahmad leads Carbon Neutral’s advisory team, who predominantly provides three alternative types of measurement: Organisational Carbon Footprint Assessments, Life Cycle Assessments (including Product Carbon Footprints) and Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance Reporting.

The businesses that engage Ahmad’s team’s services commonly benefit in three key areas.

• Lower costs in areas such as energy, materials and transport.
• Market differentiation – prospective clients prefer to deal with companies with strong environmental credentials. A recent survey established that 83% of investors will only invest in environmentally sustainable businesses. These businesses must establish their credentials by taking the initial step of measuring their impacts.
• Pressure from stakeholders – taking early action reduces the impact of the potential for environmental legislation in the future.

We sat with Ahmad to learn more about what he will bring to the company and some of the challenges that Carbon Neutral’s partners face.

Can you tell us a little about yourself and your background?

I started out on the pathway to becoming a sustainability professional because I’ve always been passionate about the sector and dreamed about a better, more equitable and sustainable future for society. I was born in a city named Chittagong in the south-east of Bangladesh, and that part of the world has been more harshly affected by the climate crisis than most. Possibly because of that start in life, when I was studying for my PhD, my main focus was on how I could contribute towards sustainable solutions. Over the years, I’ve focussed my research on sustainable materials and solutions in a number of prestigious universities. I’ve also published over 50 research articles and papers on the subject. More recently, I’ve delivered sustainability consultancy engagements to several reputable organisations in my capacity as a Climate Active registered consultant and a Life Cycle Assessment Certified Practitioner.

What attracted you to Carbon Neutral and what areas of expertise do you bring to the team?

Having done my research into the company, I discovered that Carbon Neutral is one of the longest running sustainability consultancy businesses in Australia. I was initially impressed to learn that they have worked with over 1,000 organisations from all corners of the globe over the last 20 years. As such, I am proud to be a part of its goals, aspirations, successes and achievements. I really hope to augment the business in carbon emissions and reduction consultancy, life cycle assessment and environmental, social and corporate governance related advisory services.

One of the things that I like about Carbon Neutral is that they don’t make any judgments on the reasons that clients and partners come on board. They seem to understand and accept that there is a myriad of reasons for businesses to do their part – the team here appreciate that every action, no matter how small, helps in the fight against the global climate crisis.

This is obviously a great thing for the Carbon Neutral team as it expands the company’s capabilities. Can you briefly explain the key differences between the different levels of assessments and reports that we now provide? (CFA vs LCA vs ESG).

All these assessments basically address different levels of sustainability. Carbon footprint assessment is all about carbon emissions. However, we have many other environmental concerns such as air and water quality, particulate matter, ozone, radiation, acidification, eutrophication, toxicity, and consumption of resources.

A life cycle assessment focuses on all these environmental concerns in addition to carbon footprint for the whole life cycle of a product or service or business. ESG reporting, in contrast, extends the sustainability matrix to environment, society and corporate governance. Carbon footprint and Life cycle assessment have evolved significantly and has been standardized by ISO in the last few years. However, ESG reporting is still evolving and there is no common set of matrixes to evaluate for organisations at this moment.

In my role, many businesses reach out to me, knowing that they want to do something positive but not really knowing what steps to take or which specific service is right for them. As someone who effectively measures impacts and takes the first steps for businesses, it’s a big part of my role to make sure the services they engage with are right for them and their businesses.

Australia only has a handful of Life Cycle Assessment Certified Practitioners; you are one of these. How can businesses benefit from undergoing a Life Cycle Assessment?

A life cycle assessment report demonstrates the hotspots of emissions and impact indicators. A business that wants to reduce its energy (or water consumption or land resources use), can plan early on where to focus to reduce these impacts. A business looking for carbon neutral certifications can understand quickly which alternative options will reduce the carbon emissions and by how much. A construction or infrastructure development farm planning for sustainable project delivery can work out how their supply chain or embodied emissions can be minimized. A product developer planning for more business revenue may intend for environmental product declarations which are also based on life cycle assessment results. Therefore, life cycle assessment has the ability to address different sustainability issues at the same time and for whole life cycle of a product, service or business.

What are some of the common challenges faced with the Life Cycle Assessment and what is required to overcome these?

Over the years, life cycle assessment practitioners and the scientific community have developed reliable emission and characterization factors for evaluating different environmental sustainability indicators. As the technology, production processes and business practices continue to evolve, the practitioners need to work on continuous improvement of the emissions factors and characterization factors. There is also scope for methodological development in life cycle impacts and emissions calculations from a scientific standpoint.

Governments worldwide tend not to make any sort of measuring, reducing or offsetting mandatory for businesses, (except for a handful of large emitters). Do you expect this to change as we approach 2030 and 2050 targets and if not, why do you think should businesses engage these sort of services?

I believe that there will be positive changes in this space in near future. Governments and businesses need to act sooner as it’s vital that carbon emissions are reduced by 45% by 2030 and reach net zero by 2050 to limit the global temperature rise by no more than 1.5°C. Already a growing coalition of countries, cities, businesses and institutions have pledged to get to net-zero emissions. More than 70 countries, including the biggest polluters – China, the United States, and the European Union – have set a net-zero target. However, it’s an unfortunate fact that commitments made by the governments still fall short of what is required.

Businesses need to demonstrate true leadership in this situation. After all, a pathway to sustainability will ensure significant cost-savings in their business operations, enhance brand perceptions, and demonstrate their sustainability leadership in a new world intertwined with sustainability. Business leaders now understand that we’ve reached a tipping point where they must act. Regardless of government intervention, they know that if they aren’t seen to be stepping up, then it will affect their own bottom lines.

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