We know that the carbon footprint of airlines is a big one, and that their carbon footprint is also passed on to the calculation of the carbon footprint of each of its passengers. United Airlines has launched a carbon offset programme designed to give customers the opportunity to support renewable energy and reforestation projects.
The airline developed a carbon calculator with Conservation International and Sustainable Travel International (STI) that determines a customer's carbon footprint for air travel based on routes, aircraft utilised, load factors and fuel usage.
Customers are able to participate in the scheme by visiting the United website where they will be able to make a donation that will support one of four offset portfolios.
Showing posts with label carbon offsetting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label carbon offsetting. Show all posts
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Carbon Offset Network Has Been Launched
The Carbon Advice Group launches the world's first multi-level affiliate carbon offset network today at CarbonAdviceGroup.com. London-based Carbon Advice group PLC has created a unique web-based service that enables individuals and businesses to take an active role in combating climate change. The site enables users to directly calculate their carbon footprint and immediately purchase offsets.
The Carbon Advice Group allows anyone to get involved and take an active role in the emerging green economy. The site also offers motivated social entrepreneurs a short process to set up their own micro-site to promote and sell carbon offsets as part of the Carbon Advice Group's network.
"We want to motivate the average person in the street to get online, build their own site and get the message across to everyone they know," says serial Social Entrepreneur and Carbon Advice Group founder Matthew Sullivan.
The Carbon Advice Group's mission is to create a worldwide network of social entrepreneurs by giving them the necessary tools, understanding and motivation for them to bring carbon emission reduction and offsetting into the mainstream and make it a vital part of everyday life. Allowing individuals to promote, purchase or provide carbon offsets, the group offers a compelling answer to the "What can I do?" response to global climate change issues.
Carbon offsetting enables individuals and businesses to compensate for unavoidable emissions by purchasing equivalent greenhouse gas savings. With the Carbon Advice Group, these savings can come from wind power, biomass power, or a renewable energy charitable contribution.
Available carbon credits meet international standards and goals outlined in the Kyoto Agreement. Users who purchase carbon offsets will receive certificates and luggage tags to display in vehicles, businesses or on vacation.
"Everyday we see, hear and read about the catastrophic effects of global climate change. We all know we need to do something, and we need to do it now. We believe we have solved the "What's in it for me" problem," says Sullivan.
Find out more at Carbon Advice Group
The Carbon Advice Group allows anyone to get involved and take an active role in the emerging green economy. The site also offers motivated social entrepreneurs a short process to set up their own micro-site to promote and sell carbon offsets as part of the Carbon Advice Group's network.
"We want to motivate the average person in the street to get online, build their own site and get the message across to everyone they know," says serial Social Entrepreneur and Carbon Advice Group founder Matthew Sullivan.
The Carbon Advice Group's mission is to create a worldwide network of social entrepreneurs by giving them the necessary tools, understanding and motivation for them to bring carbon emission reduction and offsetting into the mainstream and make it a vital part of everyday life. Allowing individuals to promote, purchase or provide carbon offsets, the group offers a compelling answer to the "What can I do?" response to global climate change issues.
Carbon offsetting enables individuals and businesses to compensate for unavoidable emissions by purchasing equivalent greenhouse gas savings. With the Carbon Advice Group, these savings can come from wind power, biomass power, or a renewable energy charitable contribution.
Available carbon credits meet international standards and goals outlined in the Kyoto Agreement. Users who purchase carbon offsets will receive certificates and luggage tags to display in vehicles, businesses or on vacation.
"Everyday we see, hear and read about the catastrophic effects of global climate change. We all know we need to do something, and we need to do it now. We believe we have solved the "What's in it for me" problem," says Sullivan.
Find out more at Carbon Advice Group
Monday, February 11, 2008
InterfaceFLOR Australia : A Carbon Neutral Example
I’ve talked about ways we, as individuals, might reduce carbon emissions and the impact we might make with carbon offsets and reducing our personal carbon footprint. It’s a much more daunting task for a big company to make a significant reduction in its carbon emissions, but for InterfaceFLOR Australia, the progress in the goal of achieving a carbon neutral position is almost within reach.
InterfaceFLOR Australia is a modular carpet manufacturer and is the Australian subsidiary of United States company Interface. The company has managed to eliminate all carbon emissions completely from the production of its carpet tiles. Carbon offsets are being used by the company for unavoidable carbon emissions that are not able to be eliminated by operational or technical changes.
It’s all part of an ambitious program embarked upon by the parent company called “Mission Zero” which seeks to eliminate all harmful effects to the environment caused by its commercial activities by 2020. This will include the elimination of greenhouse gas emissions, waste, a reduction in the consumption of non-renewable energy and eliminating the use of toxic substances.
Chief executive Rob Coombs has pointed out that the company has demonstrated that it is possible to practice environmental sustainability and still run a business profitably. Popular belief is that the two concepts are mutually exclusive. But over the last 5 years InterfaceFLOR Australia reduced carbon emissions by 25% and has averaged profit growth of 25% for the last 3 of those years.
InterfaceFLOR has benefited from its reduced energy usage, water consumption and waste:
- By streamlining its operations.
- By improving innovation and product design by forcing people to think creatively outside the box.
- By attracting new customers, drawn by the environment friendly philosophy and products.
- By attracting new production partners.
- By attracting and retaining quality employees.
The measurement of InterfaceFLOR's impact on the environment does not stop at the factory door, it also covers the complete lifecycle of its products from raw materials to supply chain store activity right through to it’s removal and disposal.
The Spread of Carbon Emission Consciousness
What this amounts to is encouraging suppliers and distributors to reduce their carbon emissions and paying to purchase the carbon offsets associated with any remaining emissions. All tenders for new contracts with InterfaceFLOR has sustainability as a key component of the evaluation process, a great way to spread the concept that it is beneficial on more than just the environmental level to reduce carbon emissions.
For example, when Border Express bid for the InterfaceFLOR freight contract, the sustainability clause acted as a catalyst for the company to review its own ecological footprint. The company engaged an environmental consultant to conduct an audit on the effect it was having on the environment and will implement changes to make it a more sustainable business. Changes to fuel and engine efficiency, the age of the fleet and driver training will be key areas where changes can be made.
Since 1994, InterfaceFLOR Australia has:
- Saved more than $25 million through waste elimination activities.
- Reduced waste cost per unit of production by more than 90%.
- Reduced manufacturing emissions in water to zero.
- Reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 12%.
- Reduced total energy consumption in Australia by 36% per unit of production.
- Installed skylights in facilities to save on lighting energy consumption.
- Been the first carpet manufacturer to use fibres made from polylactic acid, a commercially viable plastic made from corn starch.
- Introduced a Cool Fuel™ Program which aims to "zero out" the carbon dioxide caused by the company's car travel with carbon offset packages for employees - more than 3,500 metric tons of carbon dioxide have been offset since its inception in 2002.
- Diverted nearly 30 million kilograms of carpet from landfills globally through recycling.
- Introduced Cool Carpet™ the first "climate neutral" carpet option. "Climate neutral" means that the greenhouse gases emitted during the carpet's lifecycle are balanced by InterfaceFLOR's investments in carbon emissions offsets.
If a global company such as Interface can make this kind of commitment to reducing carbon emissions and greenhouse gases, perhaps a few more businesses can take up the challenge. It's an inspirational story and one that could be repeated throughout the business community.
Friday, February 8, 2008
Offset Carbon Emissions
When talking about trying to reduce your carbon footprint the argument is pretty compelling when suggesting small changes to your lifestyle, particularly when many of the changes will save you money. The thing is though, we all have a carbon footprint, we all contribute to the ever-increasing levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and no matter how diligent you are at reducing it, you won't lower it completely to zero. The answer is to offset your carbon emissions and this could be a little harder to sell because people won't see an immediate tangible benefit to their way or life. It doesn’t necessarily have to but it may also cost you money.
What Is Carbon Offsetting?
Carbon offsetting is a process of purchasing carbon credits to help fund reduction projects that have been put in place to remove or reduce carbon dioxide around the planet. The idea is, you calculate, say, the emissions produced driving your car for a year and then purchase the credits equal to that amount of carbon emissions that have been reduced by that project. These projects might involve the establishment of renewable energy resources in developing countries or a tree-planting project. Carbon credits can also be attained through energy efficiency projects.
So, as an example, say you own a small 4 cylinder 1.8litre car and drive around 10,000km in a year, this would emit around 1.87 tonnes of carbon. To offset this, it would cost you AUD30.86 in credits.
Carbon Offsetting Businesses
Businesses can significantly reduce their carbon footprint by having a carbon assessment done which will highlight the areas in which immediate improvement can be made and then offsetting those emissions which are unavoidable with the aim of becoming a carbon neutral business.
Organisations might offset their carbon emissions by purchasing carbon credits to neutralise its carbon impact on the planet. Carbon credits could be purchased by replacing incandescent bulbs for compact fluorescent bulbs (CFL). A CFL uses up to 80% less electricity than the old conventional bulb and when replaced building wide in large installations will make a huge impact on energy consumption.
I’ve found a directory of low carbon businesses in Australia. Using these services or buying products manufactured by these companies will reduce your own carbon footprint and will reward these companies for making the effort for our planet.
It’s All About Awareness
Naturally, offsetting won’t completely solve the problem of global warming and climate change, but by simply being aware of the effects of your activities by calculating your emissions, some sort of progress might be made. By making the production of carbon emissions more quantifiable, individuals can begin to set themselves goals in reducing the greenhouse gases they produce and hence, lower their carbon footprint numbers.
There are many organisations devoted to the greenhouse effect by reducing carbon emissions through offering carbon offsets. In fact, I daresay there’s a link or two at the top of this page that will take you to one of them.
What Is Carbon Offsetting?
Carbon offsetting is a process of purchasing carbon credits to help fund reduction projects that have been put in place to remove or reduce carbon dioxide around the planet. The idea is, you calculate, say, the emissions produced driving your car for a year and then purchase the credits equal to that amount of carbon emissions that have been reduced by that project. These projects might involve the establishment of renewable energy resources in developing countries or a tree-planting project. Carbon credits can also be attained through energy efficiency projects.
So, as an example, say you own a small 4 cylinder 1.8litre car and drive around 10,000km in a year, this would emit around 1.87 tonnes of carbon. To offset this, it would cost you AUD30.86 in credits.
Carbon Offsetting Businesses
Businesses can significantly reduce their carbon footprint by having a carbon assessment done which will highlight the areas in which immediate improvement can be made and then offsetting those emissions which are unavoidable with the aim of becoming a carbon neutral business.
Organisations might offset their carbon emissions by purchasing carbon credits to neutralise its carbon impact on the planet. Carbon credits could be purchased by replacing incandescent bulbs for compact fluorescent bulbs (CFL). A CFL uses up to 80% less electricity than the old conventional bulb and when replaced building wide in large installations will make a huge impact on energy consumption.
I’ve found a directory of low carbon businesses in Australia. Using these services or buying products manufactured by these companies will reduce your own carbon footprint and will reward these companies for making the effort for our planet.
It’s All About Awareness
Naturally, offsetting won’t completely solve the problem of global warming and climate change, but by simply being aware of the effects of your activities by calculating your emissions, some sort of progress might be made. By making the production of carbon emissions more quantifiable, individuals can begin to set themselves goals in reducing the greenhouse gases they produce and hence, lower their carbon footprint numbers.
There are many organisations devoted to the greenhouse effect by reducing carbon emissions through offering carbon offsets. In fact, I daresay there’s a link or two at the top of this page that will take you to one of them.
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