At Casterbridge Wealth, as well as investing in ways that have a positive and lasting impact on society, we also recognise that as a business, we also have a responsibility to lead by example. That’s why we recently teamed up with environment consultant ClimatePartner to measure, reduce and offset the carbon emissions for our business operations.
Casterbridge Wealth’s carbon footprint
Working with ClimatePartner meant our data could be used to calculate our Corporate Carbon Footprint (CFF), which reflects total CO2 emissions released over a specified time period. In the 12 months between January 2021 and December 2021, the CFF for Casterbridge Wealth’s business activities was calculated as 24.75 tonnes of CO2. For context, the European Environmental Agency estimates that the average person in Europe emits an average of 8.7 tonnes of CO2 per year – so our annual emissions correspond to the carbon footprint of three people living in Europe.
Supporting Carbon-Neutral Projects
Knowing the size of our carbon footprint meant we were then able to participate in projects that would allow us to ‘offset’ our footprint by purchasing carbon credits, taking us to carbon-neutral. We chose to purchase carbon credits in two specific areas where we felt our contribution would have the most impact:
- Project 1 – Ocean protection: Our oceans store one-quarter of the CO2 from the earth’s atmosphere, and are one of nature’s greatest natural defences against climate change. But ocean pollution puts this in major jeopardy. We chose ocean protection as an initiative because every tonne of CO2 offset through this project stops 10kg of plastic waste from entering our oceans.
- Project 2 – Solar energy: Emissions-free solar energy is one of the most important alternatives to fossil fuels. Renewable energy production is critical to preventing global warming and securing energy supplies for future generations. This carbon offset project has built solar parks in the Indian states of Maharastra, Orissa, Jharkhand, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh. Thanks to this project, these solar parks are together generating almost 350,000 MWhs of electricity annually, and saving around 326,910 tonnes of CO2 each year.
Noting the achievement, Casterbridge CEO Keith Edwards said: “Being carbon neutral is a great step in our ongoing process of making our business a positive force in the environment and community. The team have worked hard to achieve this milestone, and we are grateful to them for their efforts. We’ll continue to reflect the guiding principles of sustainable development, diversity and investing in the next generation that sits at the heart of Casterbridge.”
