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Whether you believe in it or not, climate change is a challenging and complex issue. As a business you can do your part to minimize the affects you are having on the environment. How? By keeping check of your businesses carbon footprint.
The term carbon footprint refers to the total amount of greenhouse gasses which are caused by an individual or collective group of people such as a business. Greenhouse gases can be emitted from the following human activities:
- any sort of transport vehicle emissions
- electricity use
- recreational activities
- clothing and personal items
You can manage your carbon footprint by:
- Measure your emissions. There are many carbon footprint calculators available on the internet. They are simple to use and will give you an idea as to the footprint your business is making.
- Report your emissions. Once you have calculated the emissions, take responsibility for them by reporting to everyone in the company. Some businesses even report carbon emissions on their website. This makes the business accountable and promotes the reduction of greenhouse emissions.
- Make a plan to reduce carbon emissions to a certain level by a certain date. There are plenty of things you can do to achieve this, such as turning off electronics overnight to encouraging staff to reduce paper waste.
- Another initiative to reduce greenhouse emissions are carbon offsets, which can be purchased by businesses that have a large carbon footprint. Carbon offset schemes involve things such as the planting of trees to help reduce emissions in the environment.
Lastly, be sure to let everyone know once the carbon reduction goal has been achieved. It’s a reason to celebrate!
