If you know the carbon footprint of your organisation, this article can trigger you to reduce your emissions faster and, if you don’t know your footprint yet, to get insight in your carbon emissions>>.
The emission of the greenhouse gas1 CO2 causes a change in the atmosphere, which causes global warming. The climate problem is not going to go away and we must do our utmost best to limit the warming. Today, our disquiet about wet summers, warm winters and floodings is increasing, and with it the motivation to do something about our climate impact. For more awareness and what you can do (less): we make CO2 tangible!
1 tonne of CO2 is equal to…
- Electricity consumption (grey) by 0.65 households in one year in NL (average consumption HH: 2765 kWh, source Milieucentraal) 2
- 1 car on gasoline driving half a year in NL (average km’s per year with passenger car, gasoline: 9,994 km, source CBS, Dutch National Statistics) 2
- 1 car on electricity (grey) driving for one year in NL (averaged km’s per year with passenger car: 11,198 km (general average, E car average unknown, CBS, Dutch National Statistics) 2
- 72 trips Amsterdam – Paris with the Thalys 2
- 2,6 economy flights Amsterdam – Rome 2
1 tonne of CO2 looks like…
- 500 CO2 fire extinguishers;
- a 500 m3 hot air balloon;
- 125m3 of cola.
For the capture of 1 tonne of CO2 emissions…
- 50 trees must grow for one year 3
To reduce (offset) 1 tonne of CO2 emissions to Zero CO2…
- one cookstove in Uganda must be used for six months (1 cookstove reduce in average 2 tons of CO2 per year);
- you must develop a reduction strategy, reduction measures and an implementation plan>>.
1 In addition to CO2, other greenhouse gases, such as methane and nitrogen dioxide, are also responsible for the climate problem. These are stronger than CO2. Where CO2 is mainly released during the burning of fossil fuels, methane and nitrogen dioxide are mainly released during decomposition processes (fermentation) of waste. Every emission is actually a mix of these greenhouse gases. When we calculate your footprint, we include all these greenhouse gases in the calculation where possible. Methane and nitrogen dioxide are then converted into so-called CO2 equivalents (CO2e). The CO2 emissions or footprint that Climate Neutral Group calculates always refer to CO2e.
2 Calculated with the CO2 calculator that we use for CO2 Footprint calculations. This is based on the Green House Gas Protocol and our up-to-date emission factors, Dutch National emission factors, excl. flying (UK BEIS, formerly DEFRA)
3 Please realize this is an approximation. This can vary a lot per location, type of tree(s), weather conditions, etc. Most calculations show carbon capture per hectare. One hectare can vary from 500 to 1500 trees. In other calculations we found that 15 to 83 trees are needed to capture 1 tonne CO2 in average per year, from seedling till an adult adult tree. In the tropics there will be fewer trees needed to store 1 ton of CO2 than in the northern hemisphere, because trees grow faster around the equator. We have chosen for 50 trees per year needed in order to capture 1 tonne of CO2. Important is that forestry projects are protected against deforestation and wildfires, which is guaranteed via VCS or Gold Standard certification by keeping a part of the realised carbon credits in a buffer as an insurance.
Would you like to learn more? Contact one of our climate experts
