Stop climate change
Stop Climate Change ( SCC ) is a program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and a climate label . Companies can use the program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions for the entire company, individual products or events and offset emissions that are considered unavoidable. The GfRS Gesellschaft für Ressourcenschutz mbH tests and certifies the participants and awards an environmental label of the same name .
History and organization
Stop Climate Change emerged in 2007 from a project by the University of Göttingen , Agrar- und Umwelttechnik GmbH ( AGRA-TEG ), the Society for Resource Protection ( GfRS ), the GLS community bank and the fruit importer BioTropic . The initial aim of this project was to certify an organic banana that was transported in a climate-friendly manner. Since then, the offer has also been expanded to other areas.
In the initial phase, AGRA-TEG from Göttingen was the point of contact, developed the program further and supported companies with certification. The basic studies required for certification are now mapped on computers for company certifications. The certification body in Europe is the Society for Resource Protection (GfRS), as well as certification service providers in Latin America. A steering committee, which is to be staffed with independent experts, reviews the SCC standards. Jürgen Trittin is the patron of the program .
In 2010 the program won the Göttingen district's innovation award.
Standards and certification
A Stop Climate Change Emissions Management System ( SCC-EMS ) was developed for SCC . It initially records the greenhouse gas emissions, including not only carbon dioxide emissions but also other greenhouse gases. Both direct emissions, i.e. those caused by the company itself, as well as indirect emissions, for example through the use of electricity or the journey of employees, are recorded. Transport from the company to the consumer is not recorded. The company then has to develop a mitigation concept to reduce its emissions. The company has to finance compensation measures for unavoidable emissions , specifically by purchasing carbon credits on the market for voluntary compensation . These are then shut down. Certificates from compensation projects that meet certain standards, such as the Gold Standard , are recognized. SCC reserves the right to check for other projects.
Certification bodies check the data acquisition, the reduction concept, its continuous implementation and the compensation against the standards of the SCC. If the criteria are met, companies can call themselves or their product or event “climate-friendly after Stop Climate Change”.
According to a 2012 study by consumer advice centers on the climate labeling of foodstuffs, Stop Climate Change was the only climate label with an external certification body. The SCC label and another own label of a deep-freeze company were the only ones in this study that provided detailed background information. However, SCC does not publish detailed results of individual certifications, such as concrete figures for emission reductions or the CO 2 balance of certified products or companies. SCC also does not specify any additional mitigation measures that go beyond measures already planned before the start of certification.
Effects
By 2019 around 50 organic food products and print products and fifteen companies had been certified. In total, emissions of around 175,000 tonnes of CO 2 were avoided in the program by 2019 .
literature
- AGRA-TEG (Hrsg.): Stop Climate Change - Certification program for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions . December 10, 2008 ( stop-climate-change.de [PDF]).
Web links
- Stop Climate Change website
- Entry for SCC in Label-Online, a quality seal database of the consumer centers
Individual evidence
- ↑ Simon Bolwig, Peter Giffon: Global Forum on Trade and Climate Change - Counting Carbon in the Marketplace . Ed .: OECD. Part I - Overview Paper. Paris June 2009 ( orbit.dtu.dk [PDF]).
- ↑ Food with a climate bonus? Consumer advice center evaluates climate label. (No longer available online.) Consumer Advice Centers, archived from the original on July 26, 2013 ; Retrieved August 21, 2012 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Ulrike Eberle, corsus-corporate sustainability: Claiming climate-relevant aspects of food . Hamburg, February 6, 2012 ( consumerzentrale-niedersachsen.de [PDF]).
- ↑ Claudia Weiß: Diversity of symbols on food: a guide . In: Nutrition review . Part 1: organic, environmental, fair trade and origin seals , No. 2 , 2008 ( ernaehrungs-umschau.de [PDF]).
