We are proud to announce that we are a carbon-neutral company. Our journey towards carbon neutrality started in 2013 when we invested in solar panels on our roof. Since then we bought more, replaced light tubes with LED, and changed our old ACs to more efficient ACs. Thanks to our solar panels, we don’t need any diesel generator to manage power cuts.
We still produce carbon dioxide by flying to clients in Europe, by providing food to our staff, transport, etc.
According to our estimate, we produced about 150 tons of carbon dioxide during the last accounting year. We have probably not covered every aspect of our business. To be on the safe side, we compensated for 565 tons instead. We, therefore, believe we can confidently claim to be carbon-neutral!
How we started focusing on the environment
In 2013 the power situation was very poor in South India. Many companies bought diesel generators. Instead, we purchased our first solar panels. The reason was environmental, and we thought it would be an excellent investment.
To run our air conditioners on electricity from the sun we had to change our old ones into inverter ACs. Since inverter ACs are much more energy-efficient, we substantially reduced our electricity consumption from the grid. There are cloudy days when we don’t have enough sun to have sufficient reserve energy. Therefore, we rent a petrol generator during the monsoon to have for emergencies. However, we have only had to use it on very few occasions.
New investments
We recently replaced our old inverters with new, more efficient inverters and also exchanged lead batteries for Lithium-Ion batteries. Lithium-Ion batteries give much longer backup time. We have also applied for net metering, which would allow us to export surplus electricity to the grid. Especially during Saturday and Sundays, we only use power for our server room. This could both reduce our electricity bill and reduce electricity consumption in our area.
How did we become carbon-neutral?
Even though as per our calculations, we had a carbon footprint of about 150 ton, we still compensated for 465 tons of carbon dioxide. There are various reasons for offsetting for more than our known foot-print;
- We may have missed some
- CO2 from airliners affects the environment more than when producing CO2 at sea level
- United Nation audits the compensation programs we have used. But we can’t be 100% sure that they are all valid.
Rather than verifying ourselves, we donated more than three times our footprint and to three different projects; One hydropower project, one wind farm and to tree plantation. We believe this ensures that we are genuinely carbon-neutral.
India is still using and even building thermal power stations using coal and without much filtering. We wanted to invest in more environmentally friendly energy sources and plant trees to contribute to cleaner air.
Air pollution
While CO2 and other greenhouse gases may affect the climate, in India, the more immediate concern is poor air quality. Not using diesel-generator and reducing the need for coal-based power would reduce our contribution to poor air. Air quality is a matter of life and death for millions of people, mainly in north India. We don’t want our company to contribute to any of this.
Here are the three projects we have contributed to:
- Reforestation of degraded land in India
- Hydroelectric Power – Jorethang in India
- Wind Power – Gangadhar in India
Other environmental activities
We have planted two gardens in MEPZ. One plot was earlier used a dump for leather waste. We have planted a charming garden with a volleyball court and a small Miyawaki forest. We also use Bokashi, a Japanese composting method to recycle our biodegradable waste.
Where do we go from here?
We want to continue our commitment to clean air, less pollution and to reduce our environmental impact. Thanks to offset of the remaining CO2 we are carbon-neutral and we hope our remaining ecological footprint is as light as possible.
We are proud and happy that we use solar panels instead of a diesel generator and compensates for the CO2 we still produce. We have no illusion of being perfect, but we can try to do as much as we can!