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RESET Carbon’s philosophy and values informsthe way we conduct our own business, which means we operate a low carbon office, we have clearly defined responsibility among team members to track and measure our carbon footprint, and we reduce emissions as much as possible. We purchase Gold Standard carbon credits annually to offset our unavoidable emissions.
Low carbon office
In parallel with our low carbon office service for commercial tenant clients, we conduct the same activities in our own office. We occupy an office space in a recently renovated suite in a 25-year-old building in Sheung Wan, Hong Kong with individual air-conditioning and openable windows, allowing us to monitor electricity use in space cooling and lighting. After establishing a baseline for office emissions, we developed a low carbon office plan. |
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Measures implemented:
- All office furniture is second-hand
- Use of LED tubes exclusively in the sectioned office lighting setup
- Follow energy efficiency labeling scheme and the WWF Low Carbon Appliances Guide when procuring electronic equipments
- Water dispenser in office: use for water heating only, with cooling function switched off to conserve energy
- Use of lower gsm (thinkness & weight of paper), FSC 100% recycled paper for business cards
- Double-sided printing by default
- Practise waste separation and recycling in the office
- No computers left on standby at the end of each work day
- Use public transport wherever possible
- Extensive use of teleconference and video-conferencing facilities for business meetings and internal training: with an average of over 20 hours of Skype usage per week.
- We fly economy class and direct whenever possible to minimize unavoidable flight emissions
Carbon footprint
RESET Carbon has developed an internal carbon calculator to track our corporate carbon footprint. Updated monthly, our calculator measures emissions from office operations (Scope 2: electricity, Scope 3: paper and waste) as well as employee commuting and international flights (Scope 3.) Our month-on-month performance in 2010 is illustrated below (up to November 2010):
Carbon offsets
We purchase carbon offsets to balance our corporate carbon footprint. We uphold a strict standard of quality, purchasing offsets only from local (mainland China) projects that have achieved Gold Standard certifications with clear social and ecological benefits. We currently source carbon offsets from our partner South Pole Carbon.
Community work
Passionate about environment, the work we do and the future of the industry, the team has participated extensively in pro-bono projects, as speakers at events and delivered workshops to share our expertise on climate change and promote action and awareness on carbon management. A snapshot of our recent community work includes:
- Pro-bono event footprint accounting services and GOLD STANDARD® carbon offsets for Friends of The Earth’s 2010 Tree-Planting Challenge. (More)
- Pro-bono event footprint accounting services for the 2009 Coastal Cleanup Challenge, organized by Ecovision Asia. (More)
- Speakers at Hong Kong Univeristy of Science and Technology: Environmental Week (More)
- Experience-sharing session with University of Hong Kong Environmental Science undergraduates (More)
- Speakers at Shenzhen PingShan Special Region: Low Carbon City and Carbon Asset Management / International Climate Change Conference 2009 / 30s Group Post-Copenhagen Review (More)
Want to know more about our sustainability practices? Talk to us.