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September newsletter
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September 2009
Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver offsets his US TV series
Jamie Oliver and TV production company Fresh One have offset the CO2 emitted during the making of their UK Channel 4 series "Jamie's American Roadtrip". The emissions offset cover their flights (including research expeditions), hotel accommodation and land travel during filming in six US states. The team's footprint was calculated by Oxford-based Best Foot Forward.
"I felt that as a programme-maker it was my duty really to stand up and say that if we're going to shoot these brilliant programmes which involve flying quite a few people everywhere, we should make a difference and help save the planet," commented Jamie. He further added, "my company is serious about helping to prevent the dangers of climate change and we recognise that with everything we do, but especially with TV programmes like this one, we create a carbon footprint. Early on in the filming for Roadtrip, we decided that we should do something positive about the CO2 of all the flights we were making and the long car journeys we were taking."
In choosing to support ClimateCare offset projects, Jamie and his crew are helping to enable the roll out of valuable low carbon technologies that are urgently needed to mitigate the impacts of climate change. ClimateCare's project technologies include ground-breaking innovation in cook stoves that provide cheaper and healthier cooking for thousands of people in the developing world, something that Jamie is pleased to support.
"Jamie's American Roadtrip" visited New York, Los Angeles, Arizona, Louisiana, Georgia and Wyoming over an eight-month shoot and the September series is accompanied by a book, "Jamie's America". Everyone who travelled on location, including those individuals involved in the book (i.e. David Loftus, photographer) had their CO2 calculated and offset.
Have your say: Can you spare a few moments of your time? ...
We are running a quick offsetting survey to understand our customers better and help us to provide the best possible offsetting service. We would be very grateful if you have time to participate. We have attempted to keep the survey to around 5 minutes' completion time.
If you would like to participate please click the link below and you can go through to take the survey now. It is also available on our website if you'd prefer to come back later.
Click here to take our survey
We'd also like to take this opportunity to thank you for your continued support of ClimateCare and our environmental work. Thanks to your continued offsets we are able to make a real and measurable difference to CO2 emissions and the lives of thousands across the world.
ClimateCare holds one fifth of registered VCU market share
Following July's announcement of the launch of the Voluntary Carbon Standard (VCS)'s Global Registry, ClimateCare has now registered around one fifth of the total credits issued, with more to come.
| Current statistics: |
1,540,501 tonnes registered to APX registry |
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50,385 tonnes registered to TZ1 registry |
In total there are 8,281,956 tonnes currently issued globally1 with the VCS. Visit the registries to view ClimateCare tonnes, projects, information and more:
1As of 25th September 2009
Barclays' Lesotho film wins IVCA Clarion Award
The International Visual Communications Association (IVCA) announced the winners of this year's prestigious Clarion Awards on Friday 25th September at an awards presentation in London. The Clarion Awards are widely acknowledged as the leading communication awards and provide an opportunity for corporate, digital and broadcast media to come together and showcase best practice communications. Barclays Plc were delighted to receive an award for their 2008-filmed video documentary on Lesotho efficient stoves, a project managed by ClimateCare. "Lion Stoves for Lesotho" highlights the benefits that these stoves bring in an interesting and engaging way for Barclays employees and customers.
An improved cooking stove is designed to use less wood and emit less smoke, and has three resulting benefits; firstly the social benefit of improved health, secondly the global environmental benefit of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and thirdly the local environmental benefit of reducing pressure on wood reserves. Barclays has provided the carbon finance to deliver locally manufactured, improved-efficiency cooking stoves to schools and orphanages in Lesotho.
The Clarion Awards are not-for-profit and recognise best practice in communicating the importance of CSR, diversity, sustainable development, social inclusion and ethical debate. They identify the role of the communicator in encouraging an ethical culture and fostering higher levels of engagement with key social or environmental issues. Other nominees in the Video Award category included Sony Ericsson's "GreenHeart", the Royal College of Nursing's "Dignity – How would you feel?" and Tearfund's, "Make Life Flow – Stidia's Story".
TUI Travel set a further target of 6% carbon emission cuts
During 2007-8 TUI Travel achieved an 8% reduction in the group's carbon footprint over the previous 12 months and now they have announced their next goals on their sustainable development path. By 2013-14 TUI Travel are targeting a further 6% cut in group emissions. Chief Executive Peter Long said, "We aspire to lead in sustainable development within the leisure travel industry…and in the long term we believe this goal will help build shareholder value for TUI Travel."
TUI Travel have recently released their 2008 Sustainable Development Report in which they reveal that TUI UK & Ireland and its customers have raised £1.7 million for their World Care Fund during the period. The World Care Fund, started back in 2007, raises carbon finance for ClimateCare projects around the world, as well as for sustainable tourism projects run by the Travel Foundation. The report also states that 87% of TUI Travel businesses support charitable programmes in their destinations, just one part of their business goals in bringing sustainable thinking to the wider marketplace.
Forum for the Future director Stephanie Draper commented, "Challenges like climate change and resource constraints will define the sector in the next decade, so taking serious action to address them remains [strategically] critical. We congratulate TUI Travel on what they have done so far and urge them to keep their foot on the accelerator towards a sustainable future."
Adnams Brewery sets an example to industry and joins the 10:10 campaign
The recently-launched 10:10 Campaign wants businesses and individuals to commit to cutting their emissions by 10% in 2010. In doing so they hope to influence politicians and put pressure on Britain to cut emissions as quickly as possible. One company who has signed up and already achieved their target is Adnams, the brewery with, amongst other things, the ‘carbon neutral' East Green beer.
The brewers, showing their awareness of the energy used during business operations, have focussed their efforts since 2006 on modernising their Suffolk-based, Victorian brewery. Carbon saving measures have included the installation of energy-efficient brewing equipment and a relocation of distribution centre to a low-carbon warehouse. More specifically, Adnams has reduced its gas demand during brewing by 30% and now uses a "brewstream" process that recovers 100% of the steam produced during brewing and converts 90% of that back into heat to warm up the next batch.
East Green beer cannot claim to be carbon free however, and this is where carbon offsets come in to complement the reduction measures taken by the company. They work with ClimateCare to offset the remaining emissions for their end-to-end production of East Green beer. Importantly, Adnams are continuing to explore further carbon reduction opportunities and investments that will help them achieve their objective of becoming a ‘carbon neutral' company.
As a company, their energy saving efforts to date have been so successful that they have reached their carbon reduction targets and benefited from the full 80% tax rebate through the government's climate change levy. Andy Wood, managing director at Adnams, acknowledged that it "is about doing the right thing, but there's also got to be an economic incentive." Adnams is one of many businesses that are looking to governments to incentivise reduction targets across industry as a result of Copenhagen talks.
Ashden Awards 2010: International entries needed by 20 October ‘09
The widely acclaimed Ashden Awards for Sustainable Energy are seeking entries from inspirational and innovative local sustainable energy programmes from Asia, Africa and Latin America. Continuing the past years' many successes, they are interested in existing achievements showcasing initiatives that have radically improved the lives of individuals and local communities. An important criterion in selection is that schemes are highly scalable to ensure maximum impact in the fight against climate change.
Winners of the 2010 International Ashden Awards will receive a variety of benefits including
- Up to £40,000 in prize money
- Tailored support to scale their programme further
- High-profile, global publicity
- A broadcast-quality documentary film on their work
- Opportunities to present their sustainable energy solutions to global policy makers
- Being part of a forum for exchanging ideas and solutions
The 2009 Ashden Awards saw winners with a variety of innovative technologies including energy efficient stoves, micro-hydro plants, solar energy systems and water pumps. HRH Prince Charles, who presented the 2009 awards, said, "The major value of these awards is that they demonstrate what is possible, not only for small-scale projects, but what is achievable for the whole world. So much of what we need to build cleaner and more efficient communities is already with us."
What would it take to be a 2010 Ashden winner?
Award-winning programmes must:
- Be up and running, delivering sustainable energy at a local level for at least one year
- Have made a genuine difference to local people's lives, both socially and economically
- Have benefited the environment
- Be technically rigorous
- Have an element of innovation
- Be replicable and help encourage the widespread uptake of local, sustainable energy
* * Closing date for entries: 20th October 2009 * *
For further information and a downloadable application form please visit www.ashdenawards.org, or contact Jane Howarth on +44 207 410 7023.
When the idea of a hydro power station on the River Yinhe was conceived, there were a number of barriers to investment because of its remote and difficult location, the unknown cost variables relating to its build, operation, maintenance and tariff levels and the lower rates of return when compared to a traditional thermal plant. Through an annual payment of carbon finance, the project's cash flow has been increased, significantly reducing investment risk and taking it over China's hurdle rate of return.
The project
High up in the remote mountain village of Yonghong, on the banks of the River Yinhe in central China, sits the Mani hydro power station. Water from the river is diverted steeply downhill via a 400m slope surfacing at the power plant, where it is directed through two 7 MW water turbines. On average the annual power generation from the scheme is around 60 GWh, with electricity production peaking during the rainy season (from April to July). This is equivalent to supplying approximately 14,000 average UK homes with clean renewable electricity each year. The power is exported from the site into the Central China Grid and distributed across central China.
Ordinarily this project would follow a Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) standard methodology, but because it is not majority Chinese-owned it does not fit China's CDM criteria and so has been accredited through the Voluntary Carbon Standard (VCS) instead.
The people
The hydro scheme was commissioned early in 2006 and at this time the local villagers were connected up to the electricity supply for the first time. Mr Like Lazu is a resident employed by the local county. He tells us how Mani has improved his family's quality of living:
"Our income has increased. We used to buy our clothes and salt with money from selling crops. All of our revenue came from selling bamboo shoots, potatoes and the corn my family planted. After I started working for Mani last year, I have had a monthly income of RMB 800, which is much higher than our regional average. Regarding the situation of my family, we did not have a TV set, but now we have one. Also, we have better clothes."
Benefits beyond emissions
Social:
- On commissioning of the power plant the local community were connected up to the electricity supply for the first time. This new power supply has improved health, education and the standard of living in nearby villages.
- During its construction, the project provided employment to approximately 200 local workers as well as to technicians from further afield. Now that it is in operation a number of local people are employed to carry out day to day maintenance and logistics.
- A road was built through the mountains to transport in the construction materials. This has opened up a new trade route for these rural villagers.
Economic:
- New income has provided an injection of cash to this rural community, improving the area's economic development.
- In China there are numerous opportunities for hydro-power generation. The hydro station at Mani is a success story and will contribute to stimulating the hydro power industry in China.
Environmental:
- Approximately 60 GWh of clean renewable energy each year is being generated in a country dominated by coal fired power. This results in greenhouse gas emission reductions and a reduction in other pollutants such as SO2 and soot.
- The project is expected to generate approximately 55,000 tonnes of emission reductions each year between 2008 and 2012.
Project photos courtesy of Climate Bridge
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© ClimateCare 2009. All rights reserved.
Registered address: 125 London Wall, London, EC2Y 5AJ
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