Alectro's carbon footprint
As you might expect from a company that helps organisations to become carbon neutral, we're also committed to taking responsibility for our own emissions.
We’re carbon neutral across all our operations - that includes everything from our business travel to the technology we use day-to-day, through to the coffee we drink and the energy our employees use when they work from home.
We do lots of learning by understanding our own emissions, and although we only have a tiny impact, we still think it's important to report our impact. We hope that this inspires even more companies to report their own footprint.
Measuring our carbon footprint
To be carbon neutral, we first need to measure how many emissions our business creates. We do this by following the ‘Greenhouse Gas Protocol’ - the global framework for measuring emissions - and categorising our emissions into Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions:
- Scope 1: direct emissions. This includes natural gas in office buildings, air conditioning, and the fuel burned in company-owned vehicles. As a remote-first business, we don't currently have an office and we don’t have any vehicles, so for us there's nothing to report here.
- Scope 2: indirect energy emissions from electricity in company buildings. Again, we don't have an office, so this is simple to report nothing.
- Scope 3: all other indirect emissions resulting from business activities. It’s essentially everything else you can possibly think of, big and small. From electrical equipment, to food and drink, to emissions from employees working-from-home. If we can measure it, then we have!
Becoming carbon neutral
Once we know what our impact is, we can offset it by funding carbon reduction projects around the world. We're constantly on the lookout to support projects we think are amazing, and that support what our employees want.
We take the same approach with our clients to make sure that offset projects are more than just a purchase.
So far we've supported Cleaner Cook Stoves in Rwanda, and clean water access for families in Laos.
We’re committed to reducing our carbon footprint
Offsetting is just one of the many ways we’re reducing emissions.
We're also constantly striving to reduce our actual impact by improving our Environmentally Preferred Procurement procedures, and ensuring that we take sustainability seriously at every step of the way.
As a small company, our impact is very low already. We will strive to remain below 1.5tCO2e per employee, in line with national net-zero targets.
Our Reports
You can find a list of all our reports here.
Reporting Year 2021 Completed
Reporting Year 2021
Period of Analysis: 01-01-2021 - 31-12-2021
Reporting Period: The reporting period has been defined as Carbon Report 2021 (RY21)
Organisational Boundaries: We used the operational control approach to establish the organizational boundary of our carbon reporting. As defined by the GHG Protocol, this will include operations where you have the full authority to introduce and implement operating policies. Under this approach, 100% of GHG emissionsfrom all owned and leased facilities over which we have direct operational control are included.
Operational boundaries: All GHG emissions associated within the organisational boundary operations are included and categorised as Scope 1 (direct), Scope 2 (required indirect), and Scope 3 (optional indirect) emissions.
Emissions
This is what our emission profile looked like for the reporting year:
| Scope | Company tCO2e | tCO2e/emp. | tCO2e/emp. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scope 1 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 00.00% |
| Scope 2 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 00.00% |
| Scope 3 | 0.726 | 0.363 | 100.00% |
| 0.726 | 0.363 | 1.000 |
Included categories:
Scope 1: Direct Fuel Combustion from Boilers and Fugitive Emissions from Refrigerants were considered but we operated entirely remotely in RY2021 so these emissions were zero. Direct Fuel Combustion from Company Vehicles was considered but we own no company vehicles so these emissions were zero.
Scope 2: Purchased Electricity and Heat were considered but as we operated entirely remotely in RY2021 these emissions were zero.
Scope 3: Transmission and Distribution losses (associated with working-from-home in this period). Water and wastewater (no company facilities). Business Travel (Flights, Taxi, Train, Underground). Employee Commute (no company facilities so no regular commute). Purchased Goods including IT Equipment, Stationary, and other office sundry. Paper and printing use. Postage and distribution. Waste generation and handling. Food and Drink. Company events. Cloud computing impact. Produced Goods (we don't produce any goods). Work-from-home electricity (all low carbon power) and heating.
Full time employee equivalents (FTEeq): 2
Offsets
To offset our emissions for this year, we have offset our footprint with a project delivering Cleaner Cook Stoves in Rwanda
In Rwanda, firewood accounts for at least 86% of energy consumption and is the primary cooking fuel for 98% of rural households. The distribution of fuel-efficient cook stoves reduces the amount of wood burning in households, which means less harmful smoke, less indoor air pollution, and fewer greenhouse gas emissions.
The stoves are designed and produced in-country, providing much-needed training and employment to the region and ensuring that they are tailored to the cooking needs of families. CO2balance works closely with local NGOs and governments to ensure that stoves are distributed to regions without pre-existing markets for efficient wood burning stoves. The stove is supplied at a highly-subsidised rate to ensure affordability for families unfamiliar with improved devices; in this way, CO2balance hopes to kick-start demand for improved cooking technology across the country.
This programme is comprised of fourteen micro projects, each of which will create 10,000 tonnes of emissions reductions through reducing the combustion of unsustainably-harvested biomass. The programme aims to reduce pressure on woodlands and wildlife, reduce indoor air pollution and improve the lives of local families.
Project benefits and impacts:
- 140,000 tonnes of C02 emissions prevented
- 22,430 families positively impacted
- 109,907 people positively impacted
- 33,645 children positively impacted
- 75,000 tonnes wood (trees) saved
Reporting Year 2020 Completed
Reporting Year 2020
Period of Analysis: 01-01-2020 - 31-12-2020
Reporting Period: The reporting period has been defined as Carbon Report 2020 (RY20)
Organisational Boundaries: We used the operational control approach to establish the organizational boundary of our carbon reporting. As defined by the GHG Protocol, this will include operations where you have the full authority to introduce and implement operating policies. Under this approach, 100% of GHG emissionsfrom all owned and leased facilities over which we have direct operational control are included.
Operational boundaries: All GHG emissions associated within the organisational boundary operations are included and categorised as Scope 1 (direct), Scope 2 (required indirect), and Scope 3 (optional indirect) emissions.
Emissions
This is what our emission profile looked like for the reporting year:
| Scope | Company tCO2e | tCO2e/emp. | tCO2e/emp. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scope 1 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 00.00% |
| Scope 2 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 00.00% |
| Scope 3 | 0.610 | 0.610 | 100.00% |
| Total | 0.610 | 0.610 | 100.00% |
Included categories:
Scope 1: Direct Fuel Combustion from Boilers and Fugitive Emissions from Refrigerants were considered but we operated entirely remotely in RY2021 so these emissions were zero. Direct Fuel Combustion from Company Vehicles was considered but we own no company vehicles so these emissions were zero.
Scope 2: Purchased Electricity and Heat were considered but as we operated entirely remotely during the reporting period these emissions were zero.
Scope 3: Transmission and Distribution losses (associated with working-from-home in this period). Water and wastewater (no company facilities). Business Travel (Flights, Taxi, Train, Underground). Employee Commute (no company facilities so no regular commute). Purchased Goods including IT Equipment, Stationary, and other office sundry. Paper and printing use. Postage and distribution. Waste generation and handling. Food and Drink. Company events. Cloud computing impact. Produced Goods (we don't produce any goods). Work-from-home electricity (all low carbon power) and heating.
Full time employee equivalents (FTEeq): 1
Offsets
To offset our emissions for RY20, we have offset our footprint with a clean water access for families in Laos project.
In Lao People’s Democratic Republic, a major study published in 2018 found that 86.3% of members had E. coli in household drinking water, indicating risk of diarrhea and other waterborne diseases. Although a significant portion of the population treats water by boiling using woody biomass or charcoal to make it safe for drinking, many families cannot afford the time to gather firewood or purchase charcoal and are forced to continue drinking unsafe water.
TerraClear is a social enterprise, registered as a private limited company under the Ministry of Industry and Commerce. The enterprise addresses the problem of limited access to safe, clean drinking water through the sale of the Lao Ceramic Water Purifier (CWP), which helps people:
- Access safe drinking water, especially in rural areas
- Reduce time spent collecting firewood or boiling drinking water
- Reduce costs for families
- Reduce child and adult morbidity and mortality
- Improve attendance at school
- Increase productivity
- Ceramic Water Purifiers remove microorganisms from water by gravity filtration through porous ceramics, with a typical flow rate of up to 55 liters per day.
During the project’s first period from June 2012 through July 2019, TerraClear sold and distributed filters to 70,181 households. In the following seven year period, the water purifiers will provide safe drinking water for potentially more than half a million people, and at the same time reduce the demand for water treatment through boiling water with non-renewable biomass. The water purifiers have a useful life of seven years or more, given proper care and maintenance, and are replaceable. The Lao Ceramic Water Purifiers are manufactured locally in Laos and therefore contribute to building a local industry in the country, as well as creating sustainable jobs and business opportunities in rural areas.
With the assistance of carbon finance, TerraClear will continue to be a unique and sustainable enterprise capable of providing emissions-free household water treatment options to rural households; thereby improving public health, contributing to household economy, and helping to conserve the local forests.
TerraClear is breaking down the barriers that make clean water access a challenge for rural communities. Creative strategies and community focused education and promotion are allowing TerraClear to change lives a few liters at a time -- providing access to safe drinking water through the manufacture and distribution of more than 70,000 ceramic filters reaching an estimated 300,000 people in over 1000 villages in Laos.
Project impacts and benefits
- 15,000 tonnes of CO2e saved annually by the project
- 20-30 litres of clean water - the average daily household consumption fully met by each filter
- 65,000 households benefiting from filter use
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