Forecasting your carbon footprint?
Access Accounts were the first to launch a module to allow you to account for your carbon emissions.
It uses the carbon tables from DEFRA and the Carbon Trust to calculate a companys carbon output and the idea is then you can use this knowledge to try to find areas for improvement.
I saw the launch at this years Softworld in Hammersmith and Tim Yeo MP was wheeled in to do the honours. I have to applaud the initiative Access have taken and will watch with interest to see how many of their customers use it and learn from it.
Accountancy Age wrote a good piece about this back in March
I am keen to explore how we may be able to do a similar thing in a forecast. It raises some questions.
Would we actually make business decisions based on the forecasted environmental impact? In the endless and relentless pursuit of profit I have to doubt this.
Breaking it into basics, would you do a video conference with a new prospect rather than fly to speak face to face to save your company several tons of carbon footprint.
Perhaps it might lead to the board insisting on using environmentally friendly aircraft rather than cutting out ”unnecessary flights” all together. That would be a good start.
I would be interested to know if anyone has started seeing pressure from the top to start being more energy efficient…car sharing perhaps, recycling of course but anything further than this?
Filed under: Technology | Tagged: accounting, carbon footprint, environment, forecasting
We have looked at our forecasted 12 month carbon output (5000 tons!!) and determined to offset it by some means. Perhaps financial but perhaps not.
We could accept that we WILL produce this amount and then pay to feel less guilty, or we could focus on REDUCING this amount over the next 12 months.
The latter approach is my preference but i’ll let you know what the powers that be decide.
..nothing except the obvious; recycling and turning off lights and computers at the end of the day.