Everywhere on the planet, trout need cold, clean, oxygen-rich water to survive and climate change is an obvious threat to all cold-water species. In fact, according to a 2020 report by the NC Institute for Climate Science, by 2060, Western North Carolina will likely see 10-20 more days a year when temperatures are above 95 degrees, which doesn’t bode well for North Carolina trout. Luckily, there a fly fishing guides like Asheville-based Zachary Davis who understand and want to mitigate that risk by going carbon neutral. Zachary signed up to become a member of the Fly Fishing Climate Alliance in late 2021 and after working with Emerger Strategies to estimate his carbon footprint, Zachary Davis is officially North Carolina’s first carbon neutral fly fishing guide. Here’s Zachary had to say about going carbon neutral, “I decided to go carbon neutral and join the fly fishing climate alliance because as a fly fishing guide in North Carolina my job isn’t only to teach people how to fly fish it’s about teaching conservation. If I’m talking about it everyday why not take it further and do more to protect our local fisheries and the planet. We have such beautiful places here in the Appalachian Mountains. It was time to step up. Reducing the amount of plastic and waste seemed like it wasn’t enough. Cutting global emissions and carbon is the best option we have to protect our natural resources and above all else this is something we all have to take initiative on and do better. We’re all in this together and we all have to at least try to make a difference to maintain and protect these wild spaces that we make so many good memories on and go forward with hope that there’s positive change on the horizon.”

But what is a carbon footprint and carbon neutrality?

According to the EPA, a carbon footprint is “the total amount of greenhouse gases that are emitted into the atmosphere each year by a person, family, building, organization or company.” Carbon neutrality 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)….”

How do you achieve carbon neutrality?

We know that we can’t manage what we don’t measure, and the the steps to achieve carbon neutrality are simple enough:

• 1) Measure your carbon footprint.
• 2) Reduce your carbon footprint.
• 3) Purchase carbon offsets for greenhouse gas emissions.
• 4) Communicate your results.

Methodology

Zachary Davis’ 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: Zachary is taking an operational control approach, which assumes that the facilities, fleets and other equipment you own and operated are within your GHG boundary.

Operational Boundary: In order to set their operational boundaries, Zachary must report their Scope 1 (direct emissions) and Scope 2 (indirect emissions) and are voluntarily reporting their Scope 3 (indirect emissions).

Below is an image demonstrating the different GHG scopes from the Greenhouse Gas Protocol:

Carbon Footprint: the total amount of greenhouse gases that are emitted into the atmosphere each year by a person, family, building, organization or company.

Below is a summary of Zachary’s 2021 carbon footprint:

• SCOPE 1 GHG Emissions: 9.5 mtCO2e
• SCOPE 2 GHG Emissions: 5.6 mtCO2e
• SCOPE 3 GHG Emissions: 12.1 mtCO2e

• 1.1 Stationary Combustion: Zachary doesn’t burn any fuels on-site for heat, so nothing to report here.
• 1.2 Mobile Sources: We included Zachary’s Subaru miles from guiding.
• 2.1 Purchased Electricity: We included Zachary’s purchased electricity from his home.
• 3.1 Purchased Goods & Services: We included the embodied carbon from all the gear that Zachary uses for guiding from Far Bank, Orvis, Simms, and Umpqua.
• 3.2 Capital Goods: Not applicable.
• 3.3 Fuel & Energy Related Activities: We accounted for the miles driven from clients who travelled to fish with Zachary.
• 3.4 Inbound Shipments: Not material.
• 3.5 Waste Generated in Operations: We estimated the amount of waste from aluminum cans, mixed plastics and food waste generated from guiding.
• 3.6 Business Travel: We accounted for a hosted trip Zachary did to Alaksa also accounted for the air travel miles of the guests on the trip.
• 3.7 Employee Commuting: We accounted for these miles under mobile sources.
• 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.

Carbon Neutral:“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).

Before we explain how Zachary Davis went carbon neutral, we 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.”

Zachary needed to offset 27.1 mtCO2e to achieve carbon neutrality and chose the Watering the West project, which “protects roughly half a million acres of the most biologically diverse regions in the Pacific Northwest which protect the California Watershed.” This carbon offset project was purchased from the nonprofit, Cool Effect. Here’s some additional information regarding the Watering the West project:

Project Type: Nature-Based Removal

Carbon Standard: ACR & CARB compliance

Vintage: 2018-2019

Additionality: Without this project, the project would be logged and continuously degraded.

Permanence: Long-term monitoring activities to ensure that carbon stocks are maintained at high levels for the 100-year period following the 25-year crediting period.

Site Visit: Q3 2021

Benefits:

• Reduced forest fragmentation contributes to improved water quality for both the Klamath and Sacramento watershed basins.
• Longer harvesting cycles (extending the rotation age and time) results in decreased human disturbances from logging activities.
• Protecting the watershed results in protecting salmon and steelhead stocks.
• Increasing the average age of trees across the project area improves air quality since a larger tree canopy removes pollutants.
• Due to the rigidity of the applied methodology, the carbon stocks must be maintained at the same level for another 100 years.
• Project activities include planting other native species to increase growth and restore biodiversity.

Conclusion

We know that we can’t manage what we don’t measure, which is why measuring your carbon footprint is a critical step in solving the climate crisis. The next steps will be about finding ways to reduce Zachary’s carbon footprint. For example, having the local energy utility conduct an energy audit and installing LED lights are a couple of ways to reduce energy consumption, and therefore carbon footprint, at Zachary’s home. Climate change affects all of us and it is inspiring to see guides like Zachary take a leadership role and actively climate change by measuring, reducing and offsetting his carbon footprint.

Zachary Davis’ 2021 Carbon Footprint was calculated with the Fly Fishing Climate Alliance Carbon Measurement Tool created by Emerger Strategies. The Carbon Footprint Report was produced by Emerger Strategies.