First and foremost, it’s important to understand why I decided to go carbon neutral. Climate change is one of the greatest threat to fish and fisheries on the planet, and according to the Intergovernmental Panel in Climate Change (IPCC), the world would have to curb its carbon emissions by at least 49% of 2017 levels by the year 2030 and then achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 in order to avoid catastrophic climate change effects. As a fly fishing guide, I love to fish and want to protect what I love by doing my part to be part of the solution. I decided to join the Fly Fishing Climate Alliance, which is made up of fly fishing guides, shops, lodges, brands and nonprofits committed to going carbon neutral by 2030.

Here in northern New Mexico and southern Colorado many of our waters are right on the edge of the desert southwest and are threatened by drought. If forecasted climate models are correct, some of our fishers are threatened to run dry. As someone who relies on the healthy trout habitat for my livelihood, it is important to do what I can to keep rivers and streams healthy. Going carbon neutral is one step I can take to help mitigate the effects of greenhouse gas emissions. Emerger Strategies walked me though the process and made it simple and clear how to go Carbon Neutral the correct way.

Carbon Neutral is defined by the World Resources Institute as “annual zero net anthropogenic (human caused or influenced CO2 emissions by a certain date. By definition, carbon neutrality means every ton of anthropogenic CO2 emitted is compensated with an equivalent amount of CO2 removed (e.g. via carbon sequestration)….”

Methodology

Artful Angler’s Carbon Footprint is based in the GHG Protocol Corporate Accounting Standard and is created as a reference for what we are including in your Carbon Footprint, which provides you with relevant, complete, consistent, transparent and accurate GHG inventory.

Spend-based method – Estimate emissions for goods and services by collecting data on the economic value of goods and services purchased and multiplying it by relevant secondary (e.g., industry average) emission factors (e.g., average emissions per monetary value of goods).

Organizational Boundary: We are taking a financial control approach, which assumes that your business has financial control over its operations and the ability to direct the financial and operating policies over these activities.

Operational Boundary: In order to set our operational boundaries, we must report our Scope 1 (direct emissions) and Scope 2 (indirect emissions) and are voluntarily reporting our Scope 3 (indirect emissions). For more information on see table below:

Our Carbon Footprint

Below is a summary of my 2020 carbon footprint:

• SCOPE 1 GHG Emissions: 7.5 mtCO2e
• SCOPE 2 GHG Emissions: 6.5 mtCO2e
• SCOPE 3 GHG Emissions: 9.9 mtCO2e

• 1.1 Heating: I accounted for the GHG emissions associated with burning natural gas for my home.
• 2.1 Electricity: I accounted for the GHG emissions associated with my home.
• 3.1 Product Embodied Carbon: I accounted for the embodied carbon of the waders, rods, reels and drift boat purchased in 2020 for my guiding business.
• 3.2 Capital Goods: Not applicable.
• 3.3 Fuel & Energy Related Activities: I accounted for the travel of my clients who came either to fish specifically with me, as well as those on vacation, in which case I included travel from Santa Fe to the river.
• 3.4 Inbound Shipments: Not material.
• 3.5 Waste Generated in Operations: I estimated the weight of my trash sent to the landfill & what was recycled to determine the amount of waste generated in my operations.
• 3.6 Business Travel: 2020 was a weird travel year due to COVID, so I did not have any business travel in 2020.
• 3.7 Employee Commuting: I did account for the miles travelled from Santa Fe to the boat ramps.
• 3.9 Shipments to Customers: Not applicable.

That said, in following the GHG Protocol Corporate Standard, we did not include some of the recommended categories because they were deemed not applicable, such as: capital goods, upstream leased assets and end-of-life of sold products.

How We Achieved Carbon Neutrality

Before I explain how we went carbon neutral, I feel it’s also important to define carbon offsets:

Carbon Offsets: “An offset project is “a specific activity or set of activities intended to reduce GHG emissions, increase the storage of carbon, or enhance GHG removals from the atmosphere.” The project must be deemed additional; the resulting emissions reductions must be real, permanent, and verified; and credits (i.e, offsets) issued for verified emissions reductions must be enforceable.”

So, you are probably wondering, how did we go carbon neutral if our carbon footprint is 23.9 mtCO2e? In short, I purchased carbon offsets for our Scope 1, 2 & 3. I decided to purchase offsets from multiple projects around the world to increase our impact through choosing offsets that reduce greenhouse gas emissions, sequester carbon and protect wildlife through the nonprofit, Cool Effect. All of the carbon offset projects we selected reduce GHG emissions, are additional, are verified and permanent. I purchased carbon offsets from a variety of carbon offsets including: Animal Kingdom, Breath of Fresh Air, Cooking with Gas, Cup of the Amazon, Doo Doo Does More, For Peat’s Sake, Happy Meal to Go, Home of the Raptors, Home on the Range, Sea of Change, Seeing the Forest for the Trees, Take a Hike, The Giving Trees, and Where Trees Save the Seas. Below are a couple of examples of how the carbon offset projects I purchased reduce greenhouse gas emissions:

For Peat’s Sake: “The Katingan Project reduced over 7.5 mm tonnes of CO₂ each year by protecting and restoring 157,000 hectares of the peat swamp ecosystem, one of the largest remaining of its kind.”

Sea of Change: “In Myanmar, only 16% of the original mangrove forest remains along the coastline. The destruction of mangrove forests has largely been caused by human activity since poverty-stricken locals do what they can to survive. Mangroves are cut down for use as firewood or for clearing the way for farming rice, palm oil, or shrimp. The destruction has decimated the blue carbon ecosystem and has destroyed the very resource that protects and nourishes communities. This project is working to restore those forests. 5 million new mangrove trees have been planted with hopes of planting another 5 million trees in the next two years. The project also works with the local population to adapt to more sustainable practices.”

While I am thrilled to have taken this critical step to better understand Artful Angler’s carbon footprint, now the real work begins. I understand that the most important thing I can do as a business is to reduce my carbon footprint. I also know that carbon offsets are not the perfect solution, but feel strongly that we need lots of imperfect solutions if we are going to win the battle against climate change. I am simply just trying to do my part as a beneficiary of the resource.

Follow me on my sustainability journey as I strive to reduce my carbon footprint to protect what I love!

Artful Angler 2020 Carbon Footprint calculated with the Fly Fishing Climate Alliance Carbon Measurement Tool and the Report was produced by Emerger Strategies.