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Frequently Asked Questions: Membership for organisations

WinACC Membership

Calculating our footprint

Reducing our footprint

 Use of our data

 

WinACC Membership

Which organisations can become members of WinACC?

Any organisation which operates in the Winchester district and is willing to measure its carbon footprint, publish it and take responsibility for reducing it. Membership is open to businesses, sole traders, charities, parish councils, clubs, societies and all other types of organisation. If you would also like to join WinACC as an individual, or encourage your staff/members to do so, please click here for more details on individual membership.

What are the benefits of joining WinACC?

You will become part of a vibrant movement which is committed to reducing the carbon footprint of the Winchester district, meeting the challenge of climate change and realising the benefits of low carbon living.

Your WinACC membership will provide evidence of your organisation's commitment to reducing its carbon footprint and help to portray your organsiation as an environmentally responsible organisation to your staff, customers and other stakeholders.

If you wish you will receive the twice-monthly WinACC Update email which will keep you informed of what WinACC is doing, and how you can get involved. You will be entitled to vote at WinACC General Meetings and be invited to an annual WinACC Party.

Does it cost anything to join?

No, WinACC membership is free of charge.

How long does membership last?

Membership lasts for 12 months. We will contact you about one month before your membership expires, to ask you to submit an updated Carbon Footprint Report in order to renew your membership.

What if we are based outside the Winchester district?

It doesn’t matter if your organisation is based outside the Winchester district provided you have some operations within it. If you do not operate within the Winchester district, but are interested in our work, we would welcome you as a supporter of WinACC. You can do this by following Step 1 of Join WinACC to register your contact details. You will then receive our twice-monthly “update” email to keep you informed of our activities.

WinACC asks all organisations operating in the Winchester district also to encourage its employees or members to join WinACC as individual members.

Do you accept every application for membership of WinACC?

We review every membership application, but we expect to accept all applications which are made in good faith.

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Calculating our footprint

What do you mean by an organisation’s “carbon footprint”?

Your carbon footprint is the amount of carbon dioxide that has the same warming effect as all the greenhouse gases which are directly attributable to your organisation in a year. It will include emissions relating to your use of gas and non-renewable electricity, and your staff’s business travel (excluding commuting). You should exclude the emissions produced by your suppliers (eg in the production/transport of your raw materials) and customers.

Does our organisation have a carbon footprint?

All organisations have a carbon footprint. However, if you do not have any premises or staff, then it may be very small. For example, if you are a club that meets once a month in a village hall, your footprint would include your members’ travel to the meetings, and heating and lighting the hall during your meetings. However, these items would normally be counted as part of the carbon footprints of your members and the village hall.

We recognise that it may be impracticable to calculate your footprint in these circumstances. Therefore, if you have no premises or staff, we are happy for you to enter your carbon footprint as zero when you join WinACC.

Please see the question below about the commitment we ask you to make when joining WinACC.

How do we calculate our carbon footprint?

The Carbon Trust has developed a simple-to-use “carbon calculator” which organisations can use to measure their carbon footprint. You will need to register your organisation's details on the Carbon Trust site before you start. You will be able to edit your footprint details or calculate your footprint again when you return to the site, for example when you renew your WinACC membership in a year’s time.

You may use a different carbon calculator if you wish, we just ask that you tell us which one you've used when you submit your Carbon Footprint Report.

Should we exclude carbon emissions relating to our operations outside the Winchester district?

As it may be difficult to identify that part of your carbon footprint which relates relating to your operations outside the Winchester district, we are happy for your footprint calculation to relate to any geographical area which is convenient for you, provided it includes the whole of the Winchester district. Please state the geographical area covered in your Carbon Footprint Report. Normally we would expect you to use the same area each time you renew your membership.

Do we have to calculate our footprint before we join WinACC?

Yes, calculating your footprint is Step 2 of the membership process. However, you can complete Step 1 of the process and become a supporter now, then sign up for full membership of WinACC once you have calculated your footprint.

What do we do if we don’t have sufficient information to calculate our footprint?

We recognise that it can be difficult for organisations to calculate their carbon footprint, especially at first when the information required may not be readily available. We suggest you make suitable estimates or approximations where necessary and include information in your Carbon Footprint Report about the steps you are taking to improve the accuracy of your footprint calculation (eg collection of additional data).

We are having difficulty measuring our footprint. What do we do?

Try looking at the information on the Carbon Trust website and our FAQs above. If you’re still experiencing difficulties, you can contact us.

Can we update our footprint details more than once a year?

If you would like to provide an updated figure for your carbon footprint, you can do this by submitting a new Carbon Footprint Report.

Does the Carbon Trust calculator fully take into account the harmful effects of flying?

As we explain in our flights tips, the contribution of air traffic to global warming is on average 2 to 4 times higher than the corresponding carbon dioxide emissions alone. However, the Carbon Trust calculator just allows for 1 times the carbon dioxide emissions and so understates the harmful effects of flying.

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Reducing our footprint

How do we reduce our carbon footprint?

The Carbon Trust works with organisations to reduce carbon emissions and has some Top Tips for saving energy. Once you have calculated your carbon footprint on its site, it will offer you a Starter Pack and guide you through devising a tailored energy saving Action Plan for your organisation.

WinACC has also developed some comprehensive 'Top Tips'  for individuals. Organisations may also find them useful, particularly for areas other than energy saving, for example Flights, Getting about and Driving and Reduce, Re-use, Recycle.

Our carbon footprint is already low. What if we can’t reduce it further?

We realise that some organisations have already taken significant steps to reduce their footprint and may find it difficult to make further reductions. In that case, we would be pleased to receive a membership application based on:

  • The main measures you have already taken to reduce your footprint;
  • A commitment to maintain a low footprint;
  • Reducing the extent to which you rely on offsetting to reduce your footprint (if relevant); and
  • Measures you intend to take in the next 12 months to help others (eg staff, suppliers or customers) reduce or further reduce their footprints.

We’ve reported our carbon footprint as zero because we haven’t got any premises or staff. Can we ignore the sections about reducing our footprint?

We require all our members to take responsibility for their carbon footprint. Your organisation does have a carbon footprint, even though it may be small and difficult to calculate, and you are also able to influence the footprint of others. We therefore ask that you complete all sections of the Carbon Footprint Report. Examples of the actions you might take include:

  • Raising awareness of climate change among your members and encouraging them to become individual members of WinACC;
  • Assisting your members in reducing their personal carbon footprints;
  • Supporting local and/or national campaigns related to climate change;
  • Choosing venues/times for your activities/meetings which help members to reduce the distance they travel and/or use public transport;
  • Working with the owners of your regular venue to reduce its carbon footprint, eg encouraging them to turn down the heating or install energy efficient lighting.

What if the things we are doing to reduce our footprint are not measured in our footprint calculation?

This doesn’t matter. When reviewing your Carbon Footprint Report, we look at the statements you make about reducing your footprint as well as the size of your footprint. For example, you might take steps to reduce your indirect carbon emissions by purchasing fewer brand new goods or switching to a genuinely “green” electricity tariff.

We expect our carbon footprint to increase next year. Does that mean we can’t join WinACC?

Not necessarily. We expect all WinACC members to make a serious commitment to reducing their footprints. However, we recognise that there may be reasons why an organisation’s footprint increases in a particular year, despite the efforts it is making to reduce its carbon emissions, for example if the organisation is increasing in size. If you feel that special circumstances apply to you, which make it reasonable for your footprint to increase next year, please give details when completing your Carbon Footprint Report. If your organisation is growing, you may wish to focus on reducing your footprint per staff/member or per £10,000 of turnover.

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Use of our data

Who will know that we are a member of WinACC?

We will include your name in our list of organisational members. We also hope that you will tell your staff, customers and other stakeholders that you are a member, and thereby help us spread the word about the importance of organisations and individuals taking responsibility for their carbon footprint.

How will you use our Carbon Footprint Report?

We will publish your report on our website, so that it is freely available for people to look at. We will also include your data in statistics about WinACC members’ carbon footprints.

What will you do with my contact details?

Your personal contact details will be stored securely by WinACC. We will use them to contact you about WinACC’s activities, primarily through the twice-monthly “update” email, and to ask you to renew your membership in a year’s time. If someone else takes over your role or you do not wish to receive any further communications from us, please let us know and we will update our mailing list accordingly. We will not pass your contact details to any third parties. For more information about how we look after your contact details, click here.

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If you have a question which is not covered above, please contact us by email or telephone.

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