Towards climate awareness and a low carbon community
As part of Findhorn Ecovillage’s intention to align itself with the Paris Climate Agreement steps are being taken to integrate a carbon strategy, including measuring, offsetting and reducing our own carbon footprints.
As a first step a carbon offsetting platform has been set up by the Park Ecovillage Trust (PET) to enable residents and guests to offset the carbon emissions created by their travelling to and from Findhorn as well as other carbon emissions. Please go here to calculate and offset your emissions. If you would like more background information about carbon offsetting, please go here. And if you wish to know more about how your offsetting contribution will be distributed, here is a description of the certified projects that benefit from our scheme.
From PET’s perspective, the price of flying is the cost of the ticket PLUS the cost of offsetting the flight. We invite you to join us in this practice so that future generations don’t have to pay the price of our neglect.
A pilot carbon footprint study was done for 2015 which revealed, from the data available, that our gross carbon emissions were around 9.5 tonnes of carbon per person, about the same as the UK average. In order to reduce our carbon impact we first needed to know more precisely what it is.
Therefore, a subsequent study took place based on our emissions for 2017. On the basis of more complete data from both residents and guests, it revealed that the average footprint of ecovillage residents is about 5.3 tCO2e, but when we include our guests and visitors it actually increases to 13.3 tonnes per person! This is due in part to the absence of sequestration data from Trees For Life included in the 2015 study, and to less offsetting emissions from our Wind Park that suffered a malfunctioning turbine for most of the year. Be all that as it may, we hope the coming study of 2018 will reveal reduced emissions.
For the 2018 footprint study, NFA full members and Park residents and businesses will be asked to participate in a survey at the end of the current year to submit data which are required to calculate our carbon emissions for the year.
We also plan to identify actions that we as a community can take to reduce our climate impact. A list of prioritised areas will be suggested and potential funding for investments will be analysed. PET will be the driving force.
As part of our climate strategy, co-workers, residents and NFA members are invited to participate in a workshop programme called Carbon Conversations. These help participants learn more about climate change and what both individuals and organisations can do to reduce their respective footprints.
this page was last updated on December 1, 2018
