Canadian HR Reporter

24 www.hrreporter.com F E A T U R E S Sean Drygas is the Toronto- based president of green energy retailer Bullfrog Power and its sister company, Less Emissions, a carbon offset retailer. For more information, visit www. bullfrogpower.com or www.less.ca. IT'S time to lessen the impact of business travel. Why? A single flight produces more carbon emissions than many people generate in an entire year. For instance, a round-trip flight from Vancouver to Toronto produces more than one ton of carbon dioxide — that's more than the average annual carbon footprint for the residents of 70 countries. For many, air travel is an occasional luxury. But for business travellers, flights can be frequent and seemingly unavoidable. As climate change becomes a top concern for stakeholders, employers will need to mitigate emissions from corporate travel. Here's a three-step approach to reduce your environmental impact: Reduce, go green and then offset. Reduce Reducing carbon-intensive activities is the best thing people can do for the climate. Start by evaluating your business' flight habits. Which far-flung meetings could be replaced by video calls? Which conferences have virtual a l t e r n a t i v e s ? A v o i d i n g t r a v e l altogether will drastically reduce a company's emissions while also saving money and improving employees' work-life balance. When travel is necessary, choose the greenest option. Trains typically have the lowest climate impact per passenger kilometre — so travel by rail wherever possible — but bussing or carpooling are also good choices. In cases where flying can' t be avoided, choose the most direct flight. About a quarter of a flight's emissions come from landing, taking off and taxiing, so skipping a layover in favour of a direct flight can have a big impact. Sticking to economy class is another good choice as carbon emissions per passenger kilometre are about three times higher for business class and four times higher for first-class seats. Go green Once employers have evaluated and reduced their energy usage, they should find green energy sources to meet their remaining needs. For example, electricity offsets. Generally, they recommend renewable energy and energy efficiency projects — these tend to offer the highest quality offsets while also supporting the transition to a clean-energy economy. "Additionality" is another crucial consideration. An offset project is considered additional if it wouldn't have happened without the extra revenue from offset sales. Without additionality, offsets pay lip service to the climate c r i s i s w i t h o u t o f f e r i n g t r u e environmental benefits. Offsets should also be measured and audited. High-quality offsets are serialized and tracked on public, internationally recognized registries; for example, Less Emissions' Canadian offsets can be found on the CSA CleanProjects Registr y, and our international offsets are available on the UNFCCC's registry. The David Suzuki Foundation also recommends looking for offsets that are certified to a recognized standard. They note that the Gold Standard is widely considered to be the world's best. They come from energy efficiency or renewable energy projects that meet very high a d d i t i o n a l i ty c r i t e r i a a n d a r e independently verified. Make a positive impact Air travel produces about two per cent of global carbon dioxide emissions, and demand for flights is steadily increasing — airplane emissions are projected to use up more than a quarter of the world's carbon budget by 2050. If we're to limit the global average temperature rise to 1.5°C, as laid out in the Paris Agreement, we must mitigate the aviation industry's impact. Employers can jump-start that change by establishing bold policies to limit air travel and offset any necessary flights. CHRR GOING GREEN WITH TRAVEL Many business travellers probably don't think about their impact on the environment, but Sean Drygas of Bullfrog Power explains how employers can 'reduce, go green and offset' to combat the ill effects of climate change RELOCATION/TRAVEL derived from fossil fuels can be displaced with renewable electricity. Unfortunately, no such alternative exists in the commercial aviation industry yet. The International Energy Agency predicts that biofuel will be essential to the aviation industry's goal of reducing carbon emissions by 50 per cent between 2005 and 2050, but progress has been slow. Today, 12 years after the first flight to use blended biofuel, only a handful of airports have regular biofuel distribution. For now, carbon offsets are the best way to shrink your carbon footprint from necessary air travel. But be discerning — not all offsets are created equal. Choose quality offsets A carbon offset is a credit for greenhouse gas reductions. Employers can purchase these credits to compensate for their o w n e nv i r o n m e n t a l i m p a c t b y supporting an emissions reduction or carbon capture project elsewhere. Low-quality carbon offsets are cheap and plentiful, but they may not deliver the emissions reductions they promise. For instance, tree-planting projects can't always guarantee permanence as the trees planted may burn down unexpectedly. The David Suzuki Foundation has developed guidelines to help people and employers choose the most effective About a quarter of a flight's emissions come from landing, taking off and taxiing, so having employees take a direct flight can have a big impact.

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