Carbon offsetting our travel
As we are beginning to see business travel rise again, we are taking steps to mitigate the associated CO2 impact. Although we encourage our clients and staff to limit travel, we know that interacting in person can be hugely beneficial to more effective product development. So when travel is essential, we have committed to carbon offsetting all flights and hotel usage through Forest Carbon schemes. Coordinated via our travel provider, Gray Dawes Travel, this commitment helps us achieve sustainable travel by supporting domestic and international reforestation and peat restoration projects.
Gray Dawes Travel, partner with Forest Carbon who convert each carbon credit into the planting of 4-12 trees or 50-100 square metres of peatland restoration. These schemes are assured by the UK government’s Woodland Carbon Code and the IUCN’s Peatland Code, which certify projects in critical areas like biodiversity, ‘additionality’, risk management and carbon capture measurement. Internationally Forest Carbon supports projects such as the Conservation Coast Forest Conservation REDD+ programme. The project area is located in the Department of Izabal in the Caribbean coast region of Guatemala, in the Sarstun-Motagua reference region and is the world’s largest grouped forest-based carbon project; hundreds of diverse landowners (including governmental, NGO, private and community) have joined to protect 675 parcels of forest making up a total of 59,341 hectares. A truly landscape-scale and community-based project. Activities on the ground to develop sustainable livelihoods include working with local farmers on technical assistance, agriculture inputs and route to market for a variety of sustainably produced commodities such as spices and jungle leaves, as well as developing this beautiful coastline into a thriving eco-tourism hub. The project is critical to the local water supply, as municipal water comes from the watershed protected by our project. In addition, protecting forests along coastlines also can help in coastal defence and disaster risk reduction for local communities.
For over a decade, we have been tracking our own operational emissions generated from staff travel, deliveries, waste disposal and utilities etc. Over this time we have seen over a 60% reduction in our total CO2 footprint, primarily due to a more responsible approach to business travel. Our commitment to the Forest Carbon scheme is just our latest initiative aimed at improving this further.
