Reducing Your Carbon Footprint

‘Carbon Footprint’ is a term regularly banded about by the media, but what does it actually mean? In simple terms, a Carbon Footprint is the measure of the amount of carbon or CO₂ emitted into the atmosphere through the combustion of fossil fuels; in the case of a business or enterprise, as part of their everyday operations; in the case of an event this could be through a product or commodity reaching the market.

A Carbon Footprint is often expressed as tonnes of carbon dioxide or tonnes of carbon emitted, usually on an annual basis. The amount of Carbon Footprint calculated is directly related to the amount of natural resources consumed.

As a result the term Carbon Footprint is increasingly used to qualify and measure the environmental impact of our activities. However, measuring the Carbon Footprint of activities is not an exact science and there are no established measuring devices that are specific to the event industry.

In the research and development of it has become clear that the event industry needs to address the issue of carbon emissions because CO₂ is recognised as a ‘greenhouse gas’ directly linked to global climate change. There are obvious choices that can be made – find an event location with good public transport links and source suppliers local to your event venue, for example.

However, the often cited method of tree planting is not a direct means of offsetting carbon emissions. This approach is one of simply painting over the cracks. Carbon emissions need to be tackled by planning to prevent them from being emitted, rather than emitting and then attempting to offset. Accredited Carbon Offsetting schemes can of course be valid gestures, but the approach is that this should only ever be a last resort, after all other means of preventing waste, have first been explored.