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“Carbon credits are recognised reductions or absorptions of carbon. Credits should be certified and recognised by a certificate owned by the individual or company who has created the greenhouse gas saving. Over time, companies or individuals who create more certificates than they need can sell these to others wanting to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.”[i]

Both commercial and non-profit organisations throughout Australia run carbon credit schemes, where you pay a certain amount, generally between $2.50 and $3.00 per tree needed to offset your emissions, for the company to plant trees on your behalf.

Where the organisation is non-profit, your donation is 100% tax deductible.

The aim of these schemes is to make you ‘carbon neutral’ by planting enough trees to remove the same amount of carbon from the air as you are producing. This will help to reduce global warming.

Official government carbon credit schemes became active throughout Australia in 2008 – the actual trading and accreditation process are still under discussion.

Of course, there are also practical steps you can undertake in order to reduce your carbon footprint. These won’t only save the environment – they will also save you money. Also, it gives you the ability to market your company as a ‘green business’ – something that is becoming more and more important to consumers as they seriously begin to weigh up the options of doing business with you versus the impact on the environment.

Once you know the size of your carbon footprint, begin by making your current footprint neutral (that is, offsetting your carbon usage with carbon credits) and then set goals for emission reduction.

Conduct:

• An energy audit: The energy audit should look at the way your business currently uses energy.

• An environment audit: The environment audit should look at how your business premises affect the environment – from paper usage through to any kind of manufacturing run off.

• A business audit: The business audit should look at the amount of travel your organisation does and the kind of culture and environmental attitudes and initiatives that already exist.

Create an environmental management plan. This will consist of the results of each of the above audits and will outline how you intend to address the issues the audits have identified.

For instance:

• Energy: Aim to reduce energy usage by using energy efficient equipment, encouraging employees to turn off computer and other equipment over the weekend and ensuring your heating and cooling maintenance is up to date. Make sure you turn off all standby computer equipment every night and especially on weekends and holidays. By doing this you can save 29 kilowatts of power a year per computer on the hard drive alone. When coupled with a CRT screen saving, the number is closer to 63 kilowatts – that’s a saving of around $6 per computer per year[ii].

  Some computer screens are power hogs, using a lot of energy even when you think they are ‘off’ on standby. On average, CRT screens use almost five times the amount of energy of a LCD screen – even when off![iii]

• Environment: Institute a policy of all reports and other documents being printed double-sided – buy a two-sided “full duplex” printer. Institute a strict recycling program within the office and manufacturing areas.

• Business: Set up an employee car pool program. Provide public transportation subsidies. Use teleconferencing and videoconferencing as an environmentally sound alternative to having meetings in person.

  Put live plants in the office – they don’t have to be outside to filter the air! Research conducted by UTS shows that plants in the office can reduce air toxics by as much as 20 per cent. Studies in Europe have also shown that pot plants in the office environment can decrease sick leave by as much as 60 per cent![iv]

Set a timeline and milestone goals so that you and your employees can track the progress of the plan – make it a contest with your clients and suppliers to see who can achieve these goals first. Consider a fun, appropriate, visual chart that monitors your progress and your clients and suppliers progress – perhaps a tree or a happy looking planet earth, instead of a thermometer.

I’m Carbon Neutral! Now what?

Once you do achieve carbon neutrality, make a not of all the things you’ve done, document them and send an email to all of your clients and suppliers to let them know.

First, it’s another reason for you to contact them without selling them something. Second, everyone will appreciate learning about what you’ve done. Third, you’ll be seen as a leader. Fourth, you’ll build loyalty with the socially conscious and environmentally aware segment of your clients and suppliers. Fifth, clients and most probably suppliers will know you’re serious and will proactively and generously suggest additional ways you can improve. Sixth, by doing this and assuming your competitors don’t do it, or don’t communicate it to their clients, you’ll be seen as different and as ‘more responsible’.

But if you don’t let people know, they’ll never be aware of what you’ve done and your influence will have been minimised.

It’s your choice if you (or your company) wants to be a leader or follower in respect of its carbon footprint. Make the decision now to start thinking about your role and the goals you set.

This is no longer a fad, it’s here to stay and the companies who lead the way have begun to be acknowledged and rewarded accordingly.

Don’t do it because you have to. Do it because you want to. Do it because it’s the right thing to do. Do it because it needs to be done. Do it because you’ll sleep better at night knowing the world, the earth, the planet, humanity will be better off.

Do it now.

References:

[i] State Forests of NSW, “Forests and the Greenhouse Effect: Questions and Answers”, http://www.forest.nsw.gov.au/publication/forest_facts/greenhouse/default.asp

[ii] Upper Peninsula Power Company, “Office Equipment: Computer Power-Management Software”, http://www.uppco.com/business/eba_52.asp

[iii] Upper Peninsula Power Company, “Office Equipment: Computer Power-Management Software”, http://www.uppco.com/business/eba_52.asp

[iv] Sarzin, A., “Greener is healthier”, UTS Newsroom, September 2002, http://www.newsroom.uts.edu.au/research/detail.cfm?ItemId=7188