Greenshop Group

We officially know the carbon footprint for each member of staff – it is 1.34 tonnes/person, which is very impressive, as the average is approximately 3 tonnes. These figures were worked out from September ’08 to August ’09. Needless to say we are very pleased with this, but we won’t rest on our laurels. Although to arrive at a footprint was fairly time consuming, it was also an interesting fact finding discovery.

Some calculations were easy to collate e.g. electricity, both mains and PV (photovoltaic) consumption, water usage, both mains and our rainwater harvesting systems, the total floor space, which was also broken down into naturally ventilated (cellular) and natural ventilated (open plan) and air conditioning (none!). Other calculations took a little more time – e.g. total distance of motor vehicles travelled within the year. This had to be broken down into small (1.4l), medium (1.4l-2l), and large (>2l) and then into either petrol or diesel, plus the calculation for our Prius hybrid. Royal Mail and courier deliveries had to be collated together from Greenshop, Auro, Rainharvesting Systems and Greenshop Solar offices, and the total number of shipments for the year. Also required was the average weight of each consignment, and this varied a huge amount from company to company – Greenshop’s average being 6kg and Greenshop Solar’s being 450kg!.

Now we have to challenge ourselves to improve on this figure year on year.
The company we chose to offset with is co2balance Ltd.

www.co2balance.com or www.icroa.org

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