Carbon emissions
Reducing carbon emissions is an ever-present challenge, whether that’s at a personal or a company level. We know that one of the serial offenders in terms of carbon emissions is air travel: high fossil fuel consumption and high-altitude emissions make flying particularly carbon-intensive when compared with other forms of transport.
Historically, it has certainly been the case that global flights have contributed more than any other factor to Computair’s overall carbon footprint. One obvious solution is to reduce the number of flights taken, and it is true that Computair now plans its air travel more strategically, and more sparingly, than in pre-Covid days.
However, there are times when a Zoom just won’t do: AHR Expo, for example, is one of those occasions when there is no substitute for getting on an aeroplane and meeting clients and industry colleagues in person. The question then arises as to what can be done to counteract the impact of our carbon emissions where those are unavoidable.
Trees4Travel
To this end, Computair has chosen to support Trees4Travel, an environmental organisation which plants trees to offset carbon emissions created by all forms of travel. Trees4travel focuses on reforestation, that is, replanting a variety of native tree species in existing forests where the natural woodlands have been depleted through human activity. The work also aims to empower local communities, supporting sustainable land practices which help to stimulate economic growth.
Through their innovative CO2 Calculator, Trees4Travel offers the user the ability to view their travel activity and work out how much carbon dioxide has been created as a result. The technology calculates how many trees would need to be planted to offset those emissions, and the user buys as many trees as they wish to be planted towards this goal.
Computair has chosen to support planting in the mangrove forests of Mozambique. Over the past year, we have planted 271 trees in the mangrove reforestation project. Projected figures estimate that the total CO2 absorbed by Computair-planted trees in the first ten years will be around 44,471kg.
While no one is suggesting that planting trees is a catch-all solution, and reducing our company carbon footprint remains a work in progress, it feels like a positive step to support reforestation and investment in indigenous communities.
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