ROBBY RECOMMENDS
MANY people boast they run carbon-neutral offices but, if you’re using power of any kind, it is tricky to balance that with carbon-neutral schemes.
We’re trying to do our best at Bestival HQ. One major issue is the two offices we run. We’re urgently trying to unite those two into one, less energy-unfriendly hub. Luckily, our young and conscious team are only too willing to sacrifice things like water coolers.
As a business and a festival, Bestival and Sunday Best have signed up to 10:10, the campaign to cut British carbon emissions by ten per cent in 2010.
We have assigned an office green warrior, to ensure all PCs, monitors and printers are switched off. She’s also implemented a new waste-recycling regime. The 10:10 has useful checklists for small businesses (see www.10:10uk.org)
A key part of signing up to 10:10 is committing to track your use of electricity, fuels and flights so you can measure progress in reducing emissions.
To start this, we are tracking useage in four areas: grid electricity, on-site fossil fuel use, vehicle fuel use and air travel.
To monitor on-site fossil fuel use, you ask your fuel supplier to provide accurate records. If yours doesn’t, your company should start tracking usage and attempt to reduce it by ten per cent.
To cut vehicle fuel use, everyone takes public transport or cycles to work.
And we have pledged to use ten per cent fewer taxis at the end of the night.
When it comes to air travel, the aim here is to reduce the carbon footprint of your company’s air travel by ten per cent. A good start is to simply avoid one in ten trips made by air. It is not as relevant to us at Sunday Best but with the wonders of new technology and conference video calling, lots of overseas flying to meetings can be saved.
Once we have this data, we are using the simple online tool to see how our savings are adding up. You report your emissions data to 10:10 using our online tool.
It’s good for the business, not just the environment, to follow these sustainable habits. People nowadays check out a business’s green credentials before working with them. So it can be very good on a purely business level too.
So let’s all make like a Bestival fancy dress theme and go green together.