Security is one of the most important things we care about at Hovy (as long as sustainability of course). We have built the Hovy platform with our 4 AROC services (Analyze, Reduce, Offset, Communicate) on one of the best web technologies: Bubble.io (website).
Bubble.io is built on Amazon Web Services, which is itself compliant with certifications such as SOC 2, CSA, ISO 27001, and more.
Regarding our payment platform used for purchasing our different packages & services, we use Stripe, which is the #1 payment platform in the world.
We want to reassure you that the data you provide to measure your carbon footprint, the recommendations you receive to reduce your carbon emissions and the carbon credits purchases you make on our offset marketplace are all stored in secured environments.
All our web pages are secured with SSL certificates as you can see with the lock icon next to our website HTTPS URL:
You can read our Terms & Conditions here & you can visit Bubble.io security section here if you want to know more.
There are multiple reasons for this:
- Ethical:
Everyone & every company should feel the responsibility to do their part to save the environment.
- Compliance:
Depending on the country & the industry, some companies have the obligation to do it. For example, companies with more than 500 employees in France are required to do a carbon footprint analysis every 3 years.
- Competitiveness:
More and more tenders have environmental components to compare bidders
You can’t reduce what you don’t measure, so carbon footprint analysis is the first step to take in your carbon reduction plan.
If you want to know more about our carbon footprint analysis & reduction plans, visit our Analyze page & Reduce page
A carbon footprint is the total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions caused by an individual, event, organization, service, place or product, expressed as carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e).
It includes direct emissions, such as those that result from fossil-fuel combustion in manufacturing, heating, and transportation, as well as emissions required to produce the goods and services we consume.
A carbon footprint analysis is a tool for measuring the carbon footprint at a given time, like a radar for the speed of a car or a scale for the weight of a person. It can be visualized by Post of Emissions (following international technical standards) or by Category (explicit friendly terminology).
If you want to know more about our carbon footprint analysis, visit our Analyze page
You will be asked to provide information regarding your activities via Hovy online forms.
We will send different online forms to the different departments of your organization (IT, Supply Chain, Administration, etc.).
When realizing the carbon footprint of your company, we are following a process called “carbon accounting”. The main difference between "traditional accounting” and “carbon accounting” is that carbon accounting is processing physical data (such as kWh, km, etc.) instead of using monetary data for traditional accounting. However, we might ask you to provide us some monetary information in case we are missing some key physical data and therefore complete the analysis.
Based on the information provided, we apply an algorithm to convert the raw data into a carbon footprint analysis dashboard measured in CO2 equivalent.
If you want to know more about our carbon footprint analysis, visit our Analyze page
Hovy's methodology and strategy is based on the GHG protocol that supplies the world's most widely used greenhouse gas accounting standards.
In order to have an accurate and complete evaluation of each company's emissions, we also base our analysis using diverse sources such as Ademe, Bilan GES, Agribalyse, ISO or Life Cycle analysis.
When we execute a carbon accounting process, we are free to choose the methodology we want as it is first of all a tool to help businesses.
If you want to know more about our carbon footprint analysis, visit our Analyze page
Before starting the data collection for the company, we will define the 3 perimeters of the analysis:
- Organizational: we will define together what activities we will evaluate within the company & outside the company
- Temporal: we set a 12 month analysis that is based on the previous year
- Operational: we will analyze all the 3 scopes of your business.
Here are the definitions of Scope 1, 2 & 3:
- Scope 1: Direct emissions. Emissions from sources that an organization owns or controls directly, e.g. from burning fuel in your fleet of vehicles (if they’re not electrically-powered)
- Scope 2: Indirect emissions. Emissions that a company causes indirectly when the energy it purchases & uses is produced, e.g. electricity bought for the office.
- Scope 3:
- Upstream emissions: emissions from production & processing operations, e.g. purchased goods & services.
- Downstream emissions: emissions that are emitted after a product or service leaves the company's control/ownership, e.g. processing of sold products, use of sold products
If you want to know more about our carbon footprint analysis, visit our Analyze page
When we calculate your organization's carbon footprint, we take into account all the activities of the previous year to have 12 full months of data.
For example, if you hire Hovy in 2023 to measure your carbon footprint, we will collect information about your activities in 2022.
If you want to know more about our carbon footprint analysis, visit our Analyze page
We assist our clients to define their carbon reduction strategy following recommendations by experts from the European Commission, the UN, EPA, IPCC and the Net Zero initiative.
If you want to know more about our carbon reduction plans, visit our Reduce page
Carbon offsetting (or carbon credits) allows companies to make a positive contribution to the environment when some of their emissions can't be avoided. For example, some carbon credits projects aim to replant trees in Amazonia to refill some areas destroyed by exploitation or provide cookstoves for families in Africa in order to avoid burning wood. In addition, funding these projects can lead to changing lives, bringing economic, social and health improvements to whole communities.
The first carbon offset project was actually an agriforest in Guatemala. In 1992, the Kyoto Protocol outlined the first offset provisions under the CDM (Clean Development Mechanism), which allowed developed countries to offset their emissions by investing in environment-positive projects in developing countries.
At Hovy, we only work with the most trusted certification organizations like UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change), Gold Standard, Verra, Social Carbon & American Carbon Registry to offer premium certified carbon credits.
Carbon credits are not the ultimate solution to solve the climate crisis but they helps to contribute to carbon neutrality while creating a carbon reduction plan & putting initiatives in place.
If you want to know more about our certified carbon credits marketplace, visit our Offset page
Compliance (or mandatory) markets are created & regulated by mandatory national, regional, or international carbon reduction regimes like the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EU-ETS) and the California Carbon Market. In these markets, organizations can trade carbon credits or CERs (Certified Emission Reductions) equivalent to one ton of CO2.
Voluntary markets function outside of compliance markets and enable companies and individuals to purchase carbon offsets on a voluntary basis with no intended use for compliance purposes. Organizations purchase voluntary carbon offsets for their own Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and their public relations.
Hovy offset marketplace only offers certified voluntary carbon offsets from the most trusted certification organizations like UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change), Gold Standard, Verra, Social Carbon & American Carbon Registry.
If you want to know more about our certified carbon credits marketplace, visit our Offset page
First of all, let’s define what is greenwashing:
The term “greenwashing” was coined by environmentalist Jay Westerveld in 1986 in an essay criticizing the irony of the “save the towel” movement in hotels at the time. He noticed the vast amount of waste he had come across throughout the rest of the hotel, where there were no visible signs of efforts being made to become more sustainable. He said that instead, the hotel was simply trying to reduce costs by not having to wash towels as much but while trying to market it as being eco-friendly.
Nowadays, Greenwashing is the process of conveying a false impression or misleading information about how a company’s products, services or practices are environmentally sound. Greenwashing involves making an unsubstantiated claim to deceive consumers into believing that a company’s products or services are environmentally friendly or have a greater positive environmental impact than they actually do.
In addition, greenwashing may occur when a company attempts to emphasize sustainable aspects of a product to overshadow the company’s involvement in environmentally damaging practices. Performed through the use of environmental imagery, misleading labels, and hiding tradeoffs, greenwashing is a play on the term “whitewashing,” which means using false information to intentionally hide wrongdoing, error, or an unpleasant situation in an attempt to make it seem less bad than it is
There is a risk of greenwashing when companies decide to offset their CO2 emissions. But no worries, Hovy will guide you along your carbon strategy, following a strict methodology to contribute to carbon neutrality in the right pathway.
At Hovy, transparency and ethics are our pillars, this is why it is very important to us & our clients to take into account the following elements:
- All our projects are certified by international standards & in addition re-evaluated by Hovy on a regular basis. Hovy teams make sure our wide range of projects offered guarantee a fair price of carbon credit, surely reduce or absorb CO2e emissions & contribute to the UN Sustainable Development Goals in the long-term.
- Aligned with the Net Zero initiative, the priority is not to offset all the CO2e emissions, the priority & responsibility for all, including to companies, is to reduce as much as possible the CO2e emissions & offset what businesses can’t reduce due to technical or economic constraints. Offsetting CO2 emissions is a great tool to reach carbon neutrality, however it must be combined to a strategy of CO2 reduction. Statistically, most of the organizations that offset are also taking steps to reduce their emissions directly.
- Finally, we support our clients in communicating their carbon approach in an transparent & integrated way, following international standards
If you want to know more about our certified carbon credits marketplace & our sustainability communication tools, visit our Offset page & Communicate page
At Hovy, we can help you to communicate efficiently your sustainability strategy & your climate action initiatives. We offer you 2 options:
- Sustainability communication guideline document:
if you manage your marketing campaigns yourself & are familiar with design & marketing tools, we will provide you with the best practices
- Sustainability communication templates:
if you don’t know where to start & need some help for your communication, leverage our different templates for several social networks & adapt them to your needs.
If you want to know more about our sustainability communication tools, visit our Communicate page
We offer you 3 different options:
- Seed: Analyze, Reduce and Communicate
Analyze your carbon footprint, Reduce your carbon emissions & Communicate your sustainability strategy.
- Water: Offset & Communicate
Offset your remaining carbon emissions & Communicate efficiently about them.
- Plant: Analyze, Reduce, Offset and Communicate
Analyze your carbon footprint, Reduce your carbon emissions, Offset your remaining carbon emissions & Communicate your sustainability strategy.
You can check the details on our Pricing page.
