We’re now a carbon neutral business!

One of the biggest factors playing into the climate crisis is the impact of global warming. This is caused by carbon emissions so it’s crucial we’re making steps to reduce our emissions whenever possible. When CO2 is released into the air, it absorbs radiation and traps heat to stop it from escaping the atmosphere. This trapped heat causes the global temperature to rise, worsening global warming. This leads to disrupted weather patterns, causing heatwaves, tropical storms and wildfire. That’s why we’ve taken steps to become carbon neutral and are excited at the possibility of offering customers the option to offset the carbon emissions from their waste collections in the near future.

What does it mean to be ‘carbon neutral’?

Becoming carbon neutral is the process of balancing out the carbon emissions you produce with absorbing carbon emissions from carbon sinks. Businesses can become carbon neutral by calculating their carbon emissions and counteracting what they have produced through offsetting projects. By offsetting the carbon you produce, you’re able to help protect the planet. We know how much carbon we produce as a business and can now offset this

Why do we want to be carbon neutral?

What we do has the possibility to produce quite a lot of carbon, which can have damaging effects on the planet and environment. The waste sector is the fourth largest for emissions and was responsible for 3% of total greenhouse gas emissions in 2017. The main reason for this is the amount of travelling involved in waste management. Collecting and transporting your waste involves lots of travelling, often done by large trucks. These HGV trucks are the second largest contributors to UK transport emissions and account for 18% of greenhouse gas emissions. We know there’s a climate crisis and think it’s important to do our part to help reduce our emissions and help the planet.

What are we doing?

The first step for us was to figure out how much carbon we produce as a business and through our services. Nottingham Trent University created an Environment and Carbon Assessment report to evaluate how much carbon we were producing and what we can do to reduce this. The report split our emissions into the three different scopes used to judge the amount of carbon we produce:

• Scope one covers direct emissions from owned or controlled sources, such as company owned vehicles.

• Scope two covers emissions produced indirectly through the generation of purchased electricity, heating and cooling.

• Scope three, the final scope, includes all other indirect emissions produced by the business, such as transport and commuting to work.

Once we knew how much carbon we were producing, we started investigating how we can offset and reduce this. We looked at the possibility of planting trees to do this and we’ve now planted 365 trees in areas that are suffering with deforestation.

We’ve also purchased carbon credits which each represent one tonne of carbon dioxide that has been removed from the atmosphere. These go towards projects across the world that can help a variety of causes, all with the intention of reducing the amount of carbon in the atmosphere. For example, developing hydropower plants in Sri Lanka or providing efficient and safe cooking equipment in Ghana. All these projects can help make a real difference in battling the climate crisis through reducing carbon emissions. By doing this, we’re able to announce that we’re a carbon neutral business.

How can you get involved?

We’re also offering our customers the option to take part too. For a little extra, you will be able to offset the carbon produced from your waste collections. We’ll calculate the carbon produced and invest the carbon credits needed to offset your collections into carbon reducing projects to give you a carbon neutral service, without any extra hassle for you.

What are our plans for the future?

We’re also trying to take our efforts even further. We’re looking into the possibility of becoming net zero in the future and have begun making steps in this direction to be in line with the Paris agreement the UK signed in 2016. This is slightly different from becoming carbon neutral as net zero means that you’re not adding any carbon emissions into the atmosphere.

Contact us

Want to find out more about our carbon neutral waste service or how we’ve become carbon neutral? Contact us today to learn more about how we’re offsetting our carbon emissions.