Government announces new carbon scheme for business

The National Carbon Offset Standard (NCOS) replaces the Greenhouse Friendly scheme, which had been in place since 2001 to certify carbon neutral products and services.

The Greenhouse Friendly scheme was wound up on 1 July 2010 due to implications caused by the introduction of the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme.

NCOS sets minimum requirements for verification and retirement of voluntary carbon credits and provides guidance for companies on calculating carbon footprints.

The scheme has been implements by the Australia Carbon Trust and the Australian Government.

Penny Wong, minister for Climate Change, Energy Efficiency and Water, said the scheme would give consumers greater certainty whether a product is truly carbon neutral.

She said: "Consumers will be able to be confident when they see a business display the logo that they are committed to reducing their emissions and becoming carbon neutral."

Australian Paper, An Meá, Australia Post, ANZ, Carbon Planet, Fosters, Jetstar, Keytek, National Australia Bank, Lion Nathan, Printer Workz, Qantas, Sensis, Sustainable Living Fabrics and Virgin Blue Airlines have already signed up to the scheme.

Australian Paper business development manager Samantha Pudney said the scheme was extremely important.

"When we first started looking at producing carbon neutral grades, it was important for us to have credibility in the claims we made," she said. "To us the Greenhouse Friendly program was the most credible."

The company now has nine different ranges of carbon neutral papers for office, printing and envelopes since it joined Greenhouse Friendly three years ago.

Australian Paper is now awaiting the new NCOS logos.

Click here for the latest headlines from across the printing industry.