Carbon Offsetting Projects Chosen

As part of P+HS Architects' commitment to reducing its carbon footprint, colleagues recently voted for their favourite projects to support through a carbon offsetting initiative. Carbon offsetting can be used to compensate for emissions by funding an equivalent carbon dioxide saving elsewhere. Offsetting all of the practice's carbon emissions for the last financial year, staff chose to support two projects:

REDD+ Project: Protection against deforestation. This project is working to prevent unplanned deforestation in the Amazon (the largest remaining rainforest on our planet), which has occurred due to logging, squatting and attempts to implement pastures. The project is expected to avoid over 22 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent greenhouse gas emissions over a 40-year period. This will be achieved by managing the land in the form of a ‘private conservation reserve’, through rigorous monitoring and enforcement. From 2012 the project has scaled-up its monitoring activities by employing and properly training local villages for monitoring and enforcement activities.

Eritrea Community Boreholes: Clean Drinking Water. In semi-rural districts of Eritrea local people have had to use wood fuel to purify their drinking, cleaning and washing water, resulting in the release of greenhouse gas emissions from wood combustion. This scheme in Eritrea is delivering multiple projects to renovate boreholes that have fallen into disrepair, to provide safe, clean water without the need for fuel (wood or fossil).

Offsetting carbon through supporting projects such as these is a stepping stone on our journey towards net zero, as we continue to monitor and improve on reducing our emissions.