Carbon Footprint – CO2 Compensation 2018

Carbon footprint at KYOS

When you work in the energy industry, the mantra of “reducing” is surely echoing in your mind: reducing your carbon footprint, reducing your CO2 output, reducing your consumption of fossil fuels….  Anything to reach the climate goals. At KYOS we also strive to reduce our carbon footprint as much as possible. But how big is our footprint actually? We did a little investigation.

It turns out that we are already quite on track in doing our best to reduce our carbon footprint. For example using cloud servers for our software, and having our employees use public transport or electric cars. However – there is always room for improvement.

CO2 Compensation

Air travel is one of the largest components of the carbon footprint. Although it is our objective to fly only when needed, sometimes we cannot avoid to board a plane. For 2018 we calculated the total number of kilometers we flew and we decided to compensate for the CO2 output. There are several initiatives, we opted for the concept of FairClimateFund. 

FairClimateFund initiates projects that reduce CO2 emissions and also provide a better future for people in developing countries. We do this by investing in climate projects in developing countries with a focus on cleaner cooking solutions and on planting trees according to fair principles. With the carbon credits that these projects generate, local households pay off their investments.

We choose to use the CO2 credits towards the Chulikas cookstove project in India. With this improved stove, households are able to reduce their wood consumption by two-thirds. And even better, the stove improves the living conditions of the families, as there is less air pollution in the house.

What will be next? The second area to reduce the carbon footprint is to eat less meat. That will involve quite a lifestyle change for some colleagues which means that there is certainly room for improvement here! What about introducing ‘Meatless Monday’ at the office?

To see our other areas of contributing to a sustainable environment: KYOS Environmental