ideostone, Jul 09

Organisation footprint: 1.8 tonnes

ideostone — Private organisation

Measured using the Carbon Trust carbon calculator.

Measures taken in the last 12 months to reduce footprint
“idestone is a micro business, with a small number of employees and has only been trading effectively since the beginning of 2009. Accordingly, all activities taken so far have added to the carbon footprint of the business. However, further actions that can be taken to minimise the environmental impact of the business that can be taken are considered. Use of electricity is kept to a minimum, heating is used only when absolutely necessary and other resource use is kept as low as possible. The biggest contributor to the carbon footprint is travel. We use public transport whenever possible, which reduces the impact and when car use is required (due to difficulties in reaching meeting points by public transport) we plan the route effectively and meetings are scheduled to avoid rush hour traffic (stop/start driving) if convenient to the other party. ”

Measures to be taken in the next 12 months to reduce footprint
“Potential changes that will take place in the next year include: - Changing energy supplier to a fully renewable provider; - More effective travel planning, including aggregating journeys wherever possible to reduce travel emissions; - Carefully considering each business purchase to ensure the embedded carbon and the running costs are as low as possible - do we really need this; can the business function without it? ”

Any other comments
“Although based on only 6 months trading, we have multiplied up the carbon footprint calculation to equate to a full year. The calculation includes employee commute but does not (at this stage) include the embedded carbon in the water supply and the supply of goods and materials to the business. We will amend the calculation as better information becomes available over the coming months. A small but growing business is likely to see an increase in carbon emissions but we will do our best to keep these to a minimum.”