Our operations are small, an office that consumes energy, but we use a significant amount of transportation.  After all, we often travel to visit our clients and to participate in conferences all over the world.  The present state of technology doesn't enable us to do this without consuming energy, much of it in the form of fossil fuels as we drive and fly.  We can however ensure that the contribution of carbon to the environment that we generate is offset by carbon consuming activities.  Through the services of Zerofootprint.net we are taking action to compensate the planet for our economic activities.

We are committed to doing our part to clean up our act - so we've begun purchasing carbon offsets calculated on the basis of our energy consumption.  Our office and local travel energy consumption is already offset.  Current client engagements where we haven't included provision for carbon offsets are being offset at our own cost.  Offsets for all of our future client travel will be purchased on an engagement by engagement basis.  Our client contract terms and conditions reflect this so that at least our participation in their operations leaves a net zero carbon footprint on the planet.  We are hoping that this small step will at least make a few more people and possibly their companies more aware of steps that can be taken.

The payment of offsets is a sort of "environmental tax" that we are willingly paying.  Interestingly, although we were fairly "green-minded" to begin with, we are realizing that by changing some of our office heating, air conditioning, lighting and transportation choices we can reduce our footprint even more and that will reduce what we pay in offsets.  Yes, just like any tax, we want to minimize it! 

Here are examples of the choices we are making to reduce our carbon footprint:

• Use more fuel efficient rented vehicles for our local and client travel purposes,
• When our present vehicle fleet is replaced it will be replaced with hybrid (or better technology),
• Switch our lighting to low energy forms (fluorescent and LED lighting),
• Turn our computers off when not in use,
• Use both sides of printer paper through reusing it for internal documents,
• Recycle all waste products that can be recycled,
• Reduce our use of papers and inks by utilizing electronic documents and printing only those documents that cannot be handled on screen,
• Switched to on-line faxing to eliminate paper use for faxes,
• Compost organic wastes (coffee grounds and filters, tea bags, food left-overs, plant clippings),
• Minimize client related travel by doing more of our client activities from our own offices instead of travelling,
• Develop training products that allow us to deliver our training services electronically to eliminate the travel associated with "in-person" training work (wherever it can be done without compromizing the training results),
• Utilize electronic contracts, reporting and invoicing to eliminate paper use and fuels consumed in mail and courier delivery,
• Keep our office thermostats turned down and wearing warmer clothing to keep comfortable in winter,
• Reduce our air condition use by turning the thermostat up and wearing lighter clothing to keep comfortable in summer.

What can you do?  If you have suggestions please share them by responding to our blog.