The certification means that the printer’s greenhouse gas emissions measurements have been independently verified to international and JAS-ANZ standards.
Vega commercial manager Robert Nugent told ProPrint that this essentially legitimises the company’s existing carbon offset program.
“In layman’s terms, we’ve got an independent body to measure our footprint and tell us how many carbon credits we need to be 100% carbon offset,” Nugent said.
Vega achieved certification after SGS Australia sought accreditation as an ISO-14046 auditor from international standards body JAS-ANZ. SGS asked Vega to participate as the pilot company for its certification process because, as Nugent explains, “they knew we were pretty well down the track”.
SGS’s task was essentially to verify the methodology used by the Carbon Reduction Institute (CRI) in assessing Vega’s carbon footprint.
SGS achieved ISO-14046 auditing accreditation earlier this month after a six-month certification process, in what Nugent says was “exciting for SGS, Vega, and the CRI”.
“Basically, it’s telling us that we’re all doing the right thing,” Nugent said.
With SGS becoming the first Australian company to achieve approval as an ISO-14046 auditor through JAS-ANZ, Vega has become the first company in Australia to meet the standard.
“Lots of organisations have carbon reports done that don’t actually meet this international standard, because there was no certification body in Australia approved by JAS-ANZ,” Nugent said.
As part of certification, Vega is required to display its carbon audit report on its website, which is updated on an annual basis. The company also has to provide the CRI with details of its business operations, such as energy usage, which are then used to calculate the company’s carbon footprint. In turn, Vega then purchases the appropriate amount of carbon credits every quarter to offset these emissions.
Nugent said he expects the accreditation to bear more of a corporate social responsibility benefit for the company than a boost in the bottom line.
“Whether or not it wins us business, I don’t know,” he said.
“The purpose for having this certification is to verify that how we’re going about calculating our carbon footprint and purchasing carbon offsets meets international standards. There’s no point in going through the process if it’s not legitimate.”
The news continues a green push for the company, which also saw Nugent appointed as a Business Sustainability Ambassador for VECCI last year following his work with the Victorian government initiative Grow Me The Money.
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