MANILA, Philippines, July 23, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, the non-profit organization Plastic Credit Exchange (PCEx) — which together with its partners, has prevented over 3 million kilograms of plastic waste from leaking into oceans — launched its updated "Plastic Neutral Pact". The Plastic Neutral Pact is a set of guidelines for sustainability-conscious businesses to achieve plastic neutrality. It is a robust framework for transparent accounting of a company's plastic footprint and offsetting of plastic waste, and forms the basis for plastic neutral certifications. It was first released in April of this year.
"Our experience has shown that there is a need for a standard like The Plastic Neutral Pact for full accountability, assessment, verification, reporting, and transparency on the amount of plastic waste generated and how much is recovered and recycled," says Nanette Medved-Po, Founder of PCEx. "The Plastic Neutral Pact is a step towards a circular economy as we help businesses take responsibility for their plastic waste and find their own paths to neutrality. It is a call to action, and a promise towards faithful stewardship. Our commitment to transparency and continuous improvement means that this standard will be updated periodically to reflect developments in industry and government policy and best practice."
The global plastic crisis requires a paradigm shift in the way businesses manage plastic usage. Prior to The Plastic Neutral Pact, there had been no mechanism to integrate the process of measuring a company's plastic footprint, providing offset options to zero it out, and evaluating the veracity of the entire process through a third-party auditor. PCEx is providing a replicable framework empowering businesses from anywhere around the globe to take effective and informed action to successfully tackle the plastic crisis.
How Does The Plastic Neutral Pact Work?
Companies can achieve plastic neutral certification by applying the standards outlined on The Plastic Neutral Pact. A business may choose to certify its entire organization, or select products, services, or brands separately. It should then work with its chosen auditor to independently assess its total plastic usage using the Plastic Footprint Calculator, a tool PCEx designed to allow the company and its auditor to measure how much plastic credits the company would need to purchase and identify plastic reduction opportunities within its operations. Once a company fulfills the requirements, PCEx are to conduct a final evaluation and award plastic neutral certification. This includes the license to use the Plastic Neutral Certified badge to visibly communicate to its consumers their commitment to environmental protection.
Transparency Matters
In serving businesses who desire to have a real, sustainable impact on ending plastic waste, PCEx commits to transparency to the public and its clients. Together with SGV & Co.'s Climate Change and Sustainability Services (CCaSS) practice, PCEx will perform compliance audits for both plastic footprint as well as the entire value chain of offset operations. SGV & Co. is the Philippines' largest multidisciplinary professional services firm and a member practice of Ernst & Young Global Limited.
"We hope to expand our network of professional services firms and work with them to refine standards for verification to make sure that we are doing our part to make sure that no plastic winds up in nature," said Medved-Po.
About The Plastic Credit Exchange
Plastic Credit Exchange (PCEx) is a Philippines-based non-profit organization that partners with sustainability-conscious businesses around the globe to responsibly offset their plastic footprint, and reduce the flow of plastic waste into our landfills and oceans.
PCEx has built a wide ecosystem of collaborators that recover, process and recycle plastic waste, and continuously seeks out the most environmentally and sound solutions to plastic waste reduction. PCEx supports environmental protection with programs that improve livelihoods and scale up social impact.
Learn more on www.plasticcreditexchange.com.
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