The Carbon "Footprint" is a measure of your carbon dioxide emissions, and is a measure of the amount of pollution that you and/or businesses are putting into the environment. The direct causes are business activities including manufacturing, processing and service industries, but also leisure activities and our own homes.

With global warming advancing at a rate that now surprises many scientists, businesses and individuals are encouraged more than ever to reduce, even offset their carbon footprint so as to operate more sustainable businesses and lead more environmentally friendly lifestyles. The ultimate objective is to become carbon positive (take more out than is emitted), with an interim objective to be carbon neutral. This is simply achieving a point where your carbon polluting activities are offset by your reductions and offsets. It should be noted that as/if we are making our offices and our business processes Carbon Neutral, we need to have a plan which we are going to implement over time to make our products Carbon Neutral as well.

Carbon neutrality is largely a personal choice as to whether someone engages in it or not. However, it is unregulated, and a claim that is at best difficult to prove. In Australia, the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting (NGER) system came into effect on 1 July 2008. It is a national framework for Australian corporations to report greenhouse gas emissions, reductions, removals and offsets, and energy consumption and production as well as providing for penalties for non-compliance. For the most part, it will be confined to large corporate enterprises that generate large quantities of greenhouse gases.

An alternative to this voluntary carbon neutrality is to require business to participate in "carbon trading" as part of a scheme. Such a scheme would involve the buying and selling of carbon "credits" - allowances created in one (or more) parts of the economy and used in other parts. As part of the NGER, an emissions trading scheme (ETS) is set to be introduced into Australia, or more accurately, The Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme - and will be the primary scheme by which to manage the process of reducing carbon pollution.

As a form of tax on carbon pollution, an enterprise that produces over a threshold amount of carbon pollution will be required to register, and to purchase a permit to allow it to continue emitting carbon pollution, up to certain levels. Under the ETS, businesses and industries that can not meet mandatory greenhouse gas reduction targets will be forced to buy carbon permits to continue polluting. The disadvantage is that this is likely to drive up the cost of services delivered by any industry bound by the scheme, such as electricity generators. Conversely, an emissions trading scheme will benefit the economy by enabling carbon producers to trade (buy of sell) excess permit amounts. Similarly, it will also facilitate the creation of carbon sequestration entities able to sell "carbon credits" to carbon polluters.

While reducing carbon pollution involves costs to business and general public, an ETS is the most efficient and cost effective way to reduce these emissions, and will be the mechanism by which carbon reduction will be achieved. It is envisaged that an ETS will cover as many industries as possible for it to have the most beneficial impact.

An ETS is not the saviour for the environment as many think it will be, as there will be many businesses that are not caught up within its requirements. For those outside the legislation, participating in pollution reduction will depend on many on many factors, but mostly the relative cost vs. benefit of certain action. Actions that can be taken include re-engineering business processes; investing in new energy efficient equipment; using energy saving methods and materials; use of alternative energy sources, fuels etc.

Carbon pollution reduction, while being driven heavily by legislative demands on big business, will miss the mark entirely with the small end of the economy. If we are to have any meaningful impact in this area, small and medium businesses will also need to undertake pollution reduction measures. While for this sector pollution reduction is a matter of choice, it's a choice we can't afford not to make.