CLEAN GREEN MOVES
JARRAD BEVAN
A HOBART real estate agency has taken the first step toward becoming carbon neutral.
The initiative aims to reduce its footprint by hundreds of tonnes.
The team at 4one4 Property Co. believes this move could be a catalyst in lessening the impacts of climate change.
Directors Patrick Berry and Abbey
Berry said it was important to look after the future of the planet to ensure that present and future generations will have a world to grow up in.
“We realised that, within our business, we contribute to a lot of carbon emissions due to having so many cars on the road every day,” Mr Berry said.
“This is why we felt it was important to start our journey towards carbon neutral.”
4one4 has partnered with Climagap, a sustainability company that specialises in environmental services, to develop a carbon offsetting strategy.
Mr Berry described the partnership as the first step of the journey to sustainability with hopes to start looking for ways in the office to reduce carbon emission through clean energy projects.
“We are committed to reviewing our carbon output every 12 months and we hope that over time, we can build awareness around this issue,” he said, “and in return, help bring other small companies on board as well because a small first step is better than no step at all.”
Climagap chief executive Byron Munson stressed how their organisation is looking more on the broader and longer impacts of carbon offsetting in the local community, such as employment and other tangible projects.
“Carbon emission can be extremely detrimental to the world,” he said.
“We need to make an effort to make longer sustainable business decisions in our day-to-day business,” he said.
4one4 Property Co. has chosen three carbon offset projects to reduce around 230 tonnes of carbon, the same amount of carbon that the company emits as per Climagap’s calculations.
The first is the 100.5 MW Wind Power project located in the central Indian State of Madhya Pradesh, which uses wind turbines that produce renewable energy.
Annually, it mitigates an estimated 175,714 tonnes of carbon dioxide.
As a result of those who participated, it benefited over 1000 people in household electrification, provided computer infrastructure in one of the local schools, and co-funded around 21.6km of roads within the project vicinity.
Next, the REDD+ Project: Conservation Coast in Guatemala which produces 20,000 Megawatt-hour of clean energy and contributes to social and economic development in one of the poorest areas in the community.
It has enabled about 178,600 tree planting projects and reduced 935,214 greenhouse gases.
Through this project, 200-plus community and local entrepreneurs were supported and 15,832 people have also benefited from sexual health services.
Lastly, the Terraclear Clean Water project in Laos saves 15,000 tonnes of carbon annually.
The leading cause of death for children under five in the area is drinking contaminated water and through the funding, 32,000 households already benefited from filter use.