Published 20 March 2017

Here at Sustainability Trust we do our best to walk the talk and limit our carbon footprint.

We’ve got five different bins in our kitchen, a worm farm, and electric bike, solar panels, insulation, energy-efficient heating and lighting, sustainable paper and napkins in our loos and are often seen tutting at each other for leaving lights on in empty rooms.

But we’ve still got a business to run, a large part of which involves zipping around town in cars to talk to people in their homes about what measures they can take to create a more energy efficient and healthier home.

We also occasionally travel by plane, use on-grid electricity and generate waste. We estimate we put 43 tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere in 2015, so we’ve decided to work with Ekos to offset those emissions.

Ekos is led by Dr Sean Weaver, the original chairperson of Sustainability Trust, and we’re very pleased to working again with one of our founders. Ekos is working in partnership with Maori landowners in Southland to preserve 738ha of indigenous rainforest, the Rarakau Rainforest Conservation Project.

The project produces 2430 tonnes of carbon offsets each year – we have ‘bought’ some of those to make up for what we put into the atmosphere. You could say that we have 13ha of rainforest working for us.

The credits are calculated based on what would have happened if the carbon project was not in place – the trees would have been cut down and sold and released carbon.

This project and the credits are internationally certified. As many of you know, we provide products and services to homes and businesses that reduce emissions.  In 2015 we reckon we provided services that potentially avoided 450 tonnes of carbon emissions!

We’re also always looking to improve, which this year will include swapping one of our petrol cars for an electric - we'd love to swap all of them at once, but we're working within limited means!

We’re going to be working with Ekos a bit more closely this year to make it easier for Wellington businesses to offset their carbon emissions, so if you, or your business, wants to join an increasing number of people achieving carbon neutrality by buying offsets, please talk to us and we can help make that a reality.