Carbon Neutral

Overview

Having measured our carbon footprint we need to take steps to reduce our emissions. This is the key job of Green Impact to identify areas to reduce and champion strategies to cut emissions across the UCS Foundation. There will, however, be unavoidable emissions that we cannot reduce immediately. To ensure that we are limiting our impact on the environment to the greatest extent now we also have taken the decision to offset the residual emissions through certified carbon credits.

Carbon credits can be seen as controversial as some people argue that one is paying to emit. This is why we only see offsetting as a temporary measure as we put in place emission reduction strategies such as moving the school to 100% renewable energy. This will allow the Foundation to be Carbon Neutral NOW! whilst we move towards a carbon zero future.

Why is Carbon Neutrality Important?

To avoid the worst effects of climate change, we need to take responsibility for our impact and act now to limit global temperature increases to 1.5 degrees Celsius, or well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. As set out in the Paris Agreement, offsetting plays an important role in rapidly deploying environmental solutions where it is economically most viable. This helps to bridge the gap between now and the time our societies will be able to phase out Green House Gas (GHG) emitting technologies.

In that respect, the Paris Agreement aims to accelerate the transformative change needed to reach carbon neutrality, ensuring that countries around the world will be increasing their ambition and action over the second half of the twenty-first century, while also supporting the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals.

Carbon Offsetting projects

Through the charity One Carbon World (who are a UN partner in delivering the UN's Climate Neutral Now initiative) we decided to retire carbon credits in support of reforestation projects in South America. Specifically the project that our carbon credits went to was La Pitanga Project in Uruguay.

• The aim of this project is to convert degraded grassland with a long history of cattle grazing into beneficial forest plantations which will aid in restoring the land, by improving the soil quality through water retention and delivery of micronutrients to the soil, and by preventing soil erosion.

The projects that are supported undergo rigorous assessments and have been certified by the FSC and have achieved the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS)