In carbon we trust
Posted by Christie Malry on September 22, 2011 at 10:59 pm
The ICAEW is as pleased as punch that it's the very first professional accountancy body to get the Carbon Trust Standard:
I am delighted to tell you that ICAEW has been awarded the Carbon Trust Standard and is the first professional accountancy body to achieve this certification.
We believe that sustainable business is the future of business, and it is central to our long-term strategy. And since actions speak louder than words, we felt we needed to track and monitor our own carbon footprint.
The Carbon Trust standard was achieved following a programme of recording, measuring, and managing ICAEW’s carbon emissions each year between April 2008 – March 2011.
As part of our programme ICAEW installed new lighting systems, controlled by movement sensors, developed a system of switching off plant and equipment during non-operational hours and installed energy efficient water cooling equipment. These changes on both ICAEW sites in the City of London and in Milton Keynes ensured the right carbon outputs for certification.
As many businesses around the world have found, taking these actions are delivering tangible bottom-line benefits for us.
It is also the right thing to do environmentally and is a priority in our goal of having a net positive impact.
Going through the assessment process to achieve the Carbon Trust Standard helped us to not only quantify our footprint, but also benchmark our performance and identify areas for improvement bringing tangible and significant cost savings across our operations.
Er, wtf mates? Could you maybe go for a Plain English Standard next time, because that's the biggest load of management-speak cobblers I've ever read. "Quantify our footprint"? "Benchmark our performance"? This is obfuscation of the highest order.
If you really want to know what this all means, there's some documentation over at the Carbon Trust's website, including the full standard. Basically, ICAEW is using less carbon than it was in 2008. But carbon measurement is a curious science. For example, the graph of carbon emissions by country says that China is the 'worst' emitter. Yet most of China's emissions relate to production of goods which are then consumed elsewhere in the world. So while Brits throw lots of shit away, China gets the blame for it, carbon-wise. And the other big scam is carbon offsets, where you pay someone who might pollute to not pollute, so that you can instead. It's the discredited system of indulgences, reinvented for the 21st century.
Of course, saving money is A Good Thing. So why not just say that that's what they're doing - they're turning lights and the air conditioning off at Moorgate Place because it means the subscription won't have to go up as much next year? I'm sure members would love that.
One can only hope that more will be made clear when ICAEW publishes its annual review in spring next year. In the mean time, if you want to undertake a futile gesture, you can always 'vote down' the article on ICAEW's website. Go on, you know you want to...
Let us not forget what the Taxpayers' Alliance thinks of the Carbon Trust:)
http://stopthemerger.blogspot.com/2011/09/icaew-a...