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A New Standard in Sustainability for SMEs
Net Positive
A New Standard in Sustainability for SMEs
It is widely recognised that a genuine, authentic and more holistic approach to sustainability is required for the SME sector. Relevant SME organisations that have successfully achieved the milestones of our Net Positive Program have been certified as abiding by the principles below: Climate Assessed, Offset Validated, SDG Policy Aligned.
Organisations that display the Net Positive logo have been through a rigorous sustainability management program that has been mapped to the international conventions that demonstrably move the needle on sustainability, actively promote sustainability leadership throughout their organisation and account for their scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions responsibly.
Net Positive Principles
A Net Positive Company is one that improves well-being for everyone it impacts and at all scales. Every product, every operation in every region and country, for every stakeholder including employees, suppliers, shareholders, the community, customers and even future generations of the planet.
This of course is an ideal we will never achieve but it is a north star, something that if we all would be striving for, the world would truly be a better place.
The Net Positive professional service provider will, in its future, operate differently from the norm today. It will, for instance, eliminate more carbon than it produces, rely solely on renewable energy and sustainably sourced materials, create zero waste, and design all processes and outputs for full circularity. Additionally, it will replenish and purify all the water it uses. As a people-centric company, it will ensure that everyone in its value chain earns a living wage. The company will promote extensive opportunities for inclusion across all races and abilities, achieve gender balance in management, and ensure pay equity. Through its services and purpose-driven initiatives—not merely through philanthropy—it will contribute to the well-being of consumers and communities.
This necessarily means they have benchmarked what best practice in sustainability represents in their industry and have used that framework in which to develop their policy settings, such that their policy in turn represents best practice. This is the starting point of every Net Positive company, as sustainability needs an ecosystem of implemented best-practice to thrive and flourish.
Principle 1
Climate Assessed
To responsibly manage carbon. This means that the relevant organisation has had its carbon emissions assessed according to recognised carbon standards and is genuinely attempting to reduce its emissions year-on-year as determined by an emissions reduction strategy (particularly focusing on reducing fossil fuel dependency), and having set an interim (2030) target and incremental targets that align. Only SME businesses may use this Net Positive certification and as such relevant organisations do not purport to account for all the emissions in their supply chain, but only those which they have a real element of control over. Having said this, all relevant organisations to complete the program have developed a Scope 3 emissions policy to reduce emissions from their upstream supply and influence emissions reductions in downstream stakeholders.
Principle 2
Offset validated
To use genuine offset products that credibly achieve emissions offsets for scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions of the relevant organisation. Where the relevant organisation has decided to make a carbon neutral claim it has offset necessary emissions with products that clarify governance and provide transparency in relation to positive project outcomes and co-benefits. This is most-usually done by using local (/Australian-based) products that have been verified independently and managed transparently to the highest of standards and as such enhance confidence in the integrity and effectiveness of the scheme, the details of which are included in a Public Disclosure Statement which is available to access from the relevant organisation's website.
Principle 3
SDG Policy Aligned
To align with the SDGs in holistically embedding sustainability in the relevant organisation. While the focus on sustainability has been on climate action, biodiversity loss has taken a back seat to climate when we now know that diminishing biodiversity is exacerbating climate change. We also need to consider environmental, social and governance impacts that drive sustainability both on a micro and macro level. The relevant organisation has adopted the SDGs as the central approach in measuring sustainability performance within its operations, and maps its policy framework to the SDGs (SDPIs) and The UN Global Compact's 10 Principles, as required to successfully complete the Net Positive Program.