- ONE Group Head Office entered the climate neutral program in October 2006 with
company Climate Friendly. For all energy used at Head Office and in transporting all
products around the world, One Group have committed equivalent funds to become
carbon neutral and support sustainable energy programs.
The Climate Neutral group are involved in a number of important programs:-
Climate friendly funds Australian & International renewable energy projects
- Building a clean energy industry today to protect our future)
- Keeping abreast of the latest
- Climate friendly technologies and invest your money wherever in the world it can be put to
best
- Use maximising impact on the global challenge to arrest climate change.
One Group fund genuine sustainable energy projects with undisputed climate benefits that build
a long term solutions to climate change. These include:
- Wind / solar electric (PV) / solar thermal,
micro hydro (low-impact)/ geothermal / ecologically sound biomass;
- energy crops;
- forest and agricultural waste and agro-processing residues / ecologically sound biogas.
Check out their website at www.climatefriendly.com and see if your household can become
climate neutral. .
In today's world, it is easy to forget that we are as much a part of the environment and as
dependent on it as all other living creatures. We now know that our activities have impacted
upon our world in ways that are proving to be devastating. Pesticide pollution, deforestation and
global warming are among the worlds largest threats. Approximately 30% of global warming
can be traced back to agriculture, mainly through emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), methane
(CH4) and nitrous oxide (NO), and that organic agriculture greatly reduces that effect whilst also
eliminating the use of synthetic pesticides, that is contribu
ting to the health of people and simultaneously the environment.
One Group announced the following two initiatives at the 2006 inaugural conference:
1. As of August 2006 One Group production facility carbon emissions have been neutralised by
paying for renewable energy such as wind and solar to be fed into the grid to replace the fossil
fuel energy we once used. This has been achieved through the accredited green power
company Climate Friendly. www.climatefriendly.com.au
2. As we deliver products all around the world, we engaged the team at a non profit
organization - Green Fleet to calculate our carbon emissions. It had been determined that a
current sales volume we emit over 118 tons of CO2 annually. We have further agreed to plant
sufficient native trees to offset these carbon emissions and revisit our volume on a quarterly
basis, planting an adequate amount of trees to keep us carbon neutral.
The term 'green fleet' means that the greenhouse gas emissions of
a company's cars are being offset by practices that reduce
greenhouse gas emissions, whether it be by planting trees, using
solar energy for electricity, using battery operated cars etc. Many
local government authorities throughout the world have adopted the 'green fleet' principle. In
fact it is mainly through local initiatives in both Australia and the United States that global
warming is being addressed as both countries have failed to ratify the Kyoto Protocol which
commits countries to limit their greenhouse gas emissions. Europe is miles ahead of both
Australia and the US in addressing climate change issues!
Like all things in nature, there is a multiplying effect - becoming carbon neutral whilst also
tackling the problem of salinity, improving water quality and providing essential habitat for many
species.
What does it mean to be 'carbon neutral'?
Every manufacturing process uses energy that leads to greenhouse gases being emitted into
the atmosphere. The main greenhouse gas is carbon dioxide which is released through burning
fossil fuels such as coal to produce electricity and using petroleum to transport goods. ONE
Group compensates for its use of both these fossil fuels by a number of projects including
planting trees. Young trees need carbon dioxide to grow and so plantations of young trees
become 'carbon sinks'. Through working out how much carbon dioxide is released into the
atmosphere by the company and matching this with the amount of carbon dioxide that trees use
to grow the company aims to become 'carbon neutral'. Planting trees also reduces dryland
salinity as the trees use water that would otherwise rise to the surface, leaving behind dissolved
salts in the soil when the water evaporates.
Why is greenhouse gas accumulation in the atmosphere so bad?
Greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide accumulate in the atmoshpere and form a blanket
which keeps in heat, hence leading to global warming. More heat in the atmosphere will
eventually lead to animal extinctions as habitats change and more severe weather events such
as droughts and cyclones (the more heat, the more the evaporation) |
