By Sharita Henry, Swati Khanijo, and our Shared Platform Project colleagues at Project Neutral
We know that it takes great intention and commitment for our team to decide to come together for a staff retreat gathering of this magnitude. This will be the first time our team who spans the country is able to gather in this way, and we feel grateful for this opportunity, and also responsible for the impact this will have on our planet. While we have a hybrid program, the majority of team members will be joining in person at UBC. This does mean that our carbon footprint is significant. By doing so, we believe we will prevent significant additional travel between our offices at other times of the year, we’ll have deepened our connections to each other and our Vancouver office, and create relationships that will exponentially increase our enthusiasm for doing the work of MakeWay in the world.
Ways we are committed to reducing our carbon footprint during the retreat:
- No single use plastics, and compostable / reusable containers will be used wherever possible. Our UBC catering providers have compostable plates for each of our meals.
- We have prioritized Local, independent caterers and suppliers where possible and have provided vegan/vegetarian/meat free options for meals, and sustainable products for gifting.
- We will be limiting the printing we’ll be doing for the retreat, opting towards predominantly online content. We will be using some paper for in person activities but have asked groups to limit the amount they use where possible.
- Diving deeper into our carbon inventory in the coming weeks (ie: looking at emissions from accommodations and other forms of travel)
Individual Actions to take:
- Please consider public transit or carpooling for your transportation if you are commuting in daily to the retreat. If you want to know who else is on the commuting list to find a “buddy”, please reach out to Chanel
- We highly encourage you to bring your own reusable coffee/tea mug and water bottle to use in place of cups at the retreat. We want you to stay hydrated, and we can cut down exponentially on the waste produced by this small action.
- Reduce food waste – do your best to only take what you plan to eat and eat what you take on your plate!
- Prioritize low-carbon activities in your down time, especially those that connect you with nature
Purchasing CARBON Offsets:
- After research and support from Project Neutral, MakeWay has decided to support the mission of LESS : to give Canadians a way to take action on their air travel-related emissions today.
- ‘Less’ is also an official offset provider for ‘Air Canada’
- Calculations: ‘Less’ has derived a mathematical formula to convert the carbon emission to a monetary figure. This money is utilized in 2 different kinds of projects:
- Gold Standard-certified international projects: They support projects such as ‘Vietstar Municipal Solid Waste Treatment Plant in Vietnam’ & ‘San Miguel Biogas Project in Thailand (Details in the link)’
- CSA Standard-certified Canadian projects: They support Canadian projects like ‘Essex-Windsor Regional Landfill Gas Capture and Destruction’
- They also support programs such as ‘Chlorine dispensers in Eastern Uganda’ & Solar Cooker project in Nanyang Danjiang River Region, China
- MakeWay will support one of the projects with the carbon offset credits.
PROCESS:
- By filling the basic information such as:
- ‘Trip Type’: One way or Round Trip
- Number of Passengers
- Origin
- Destination
- LESS calculates the monetary equivalent of carbon emission
- There is an option to support ‘International Initiatives’ or ‘Canadian Initiatives’
- Once selected, there is a payment page where you can pay the associated fee. MakeWay is paying for fees associated with all airline travel for this retreat.
