From individuals to businesses and nations, lowering the planet’s carbon footprint is a problem. From sourcing our energy to the way we farm, every product and process must become carbon neutral.
Putting a price on carbon pollution can help make that a reality. A carbon tax puts a price on all forms of carbon pollution, reducing the use of fossil fuels while funding advances towards efficiency and cleaner, greener technologies. Canada’s British Columbia has already had seven years of positive carbon tax results. In the US, Vermont is pushing to do the same.
Now, Ben & Jerry’s has launched its own internal carbon tax, instituting a price of $10 for every metric ton of the company’s greenhouse gas emissions, from farm to landfill. The company itself will pay the tax, with the funds going toward internal green initiatives.
Scientists agree that nations must curb emissions by at least 80% by 2050 to avoid completely overheating our planet. Ben & Jerry’s has set its own targets for reducing emissions to that same level.
Using the “lifecycle analysis” tool to produce a “cow-to-cone” picture of the company’s carbon footprint, Ben & Jerry’s will put the funds from the resulting tax into boosting pre-existing environmental programs. To begin with, the company’s dairy component accounts for 42% of the overall lifecycle emissions of its ice cream.
Step one, therefore, requires working with farmers to develop and implement strategies that reduce the company’s carbon footprint, such as a separator – a device that makes bedding out of manure, thereby reducing 50% of the methane otherwise destined for the lagoon. According to the company, this method saves the farm $30,000 annually and reduces greenhouse gas emissions by 10,000 metric tons over 10 years. Additional measures include investing in solar panels at the Ben & Jerry’s Waterbury, Vermont plant, and installing electric vehicle charging stations at its facilities.
It’s an ambitious plan. But the company’s executives say success doesn’t come from working alone: governments everywhere must commit to putting a price on carbon pollution, and turn investment in dirty carbon into a clean energy future.
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