10:10 – carbon counting
CWL is an enthusiastic supporter of 10:10 the campaign to cut emissions by 10% this year. But like many small businesses monitoring exactly how much carbon we emit is not as easy as it should be. In common with many companies our office accommodation does not have its own electricity meter and our energy use is included with our rent. And up to now recording transport emissions has been a case or scribbling down journey details and then working the emissions as and when we remember.
Thanks to the efforts of one of our interns Rob Dixon, knowing exactly what we are emitting will be a lot easier from here on. Electricity consumption from our use of computers, printers and appliances is now monitored using simple plug-in consumption monitors. And using Filemaker Pro Rob has created a database which we now us to track our energy consumption (including lighting), transport emissions and use of paper.
We are testing the beta version right now with a plan to make the database (which is cross platform) available as a free and open source application for use by other businesses, in due course.
And for those difficult to reach transport emissions there is a version which runs on an iPhone.
FFI please contact office@climate-works.co.uk.
Climate Works Ltd
12th May 2011