Practice PR becomes first carbon neutral PR company

EmissionZero Unveils Largest Group of Irish Carbon Neutral Companies and the World’s First Carbon Neutral Convention Centre

Representatives of the 12 EmissionZero partners

At a prestigious event in Dublin City Hall, EmissionZero, Ireland’s premier Carbon Consultancy, presented 12 Carbon Neutral Companies and the World’s First Carbon Neutral Convention Centre. The EmissionZero partner companies have all measured, reduced and offset their CO2, resulting in lower carbon footprints and financial savings.

Jillian Godsil, director with Practice PR & Events, welcomed the opportunity to become the first carbon neutral Public Relations company in the country.  “We jumped at the chance of setting our company the challenge to become carbon neutral. It’s great to do something positive during all the current doom and gloom and it helps us be more aware of our costs, utility usage, etc. Many of our PR clients are green companies so it is important that we participate fully in initiatives such as this.”

The 12 EmissionZero partners are:

• The Convention Centre Dublin
• McCann Fitzgerald
• Deloitte
• The Electric Picnic
• MosArt Architects
• Renobuild
• GreenMe
• The Sycamore Club
• Practice PR
• CCP Recruitment
• Ecocem
• Xwerx

In order to achieve the carbon neutral accreditation, each company initially had their Carbon Footprint measured in accordance with the Green House Gas Protocol. This provides the starting point for any reduction strategy; after all you can’t manage what you don’t measure!

Each company then received tailored Carbon Footprint Reduction Strategies as well as a target for reduction. Some of the companies have already shown drops in Carbon Footprint of up to 40%. In order to reduce the carbon footprint, organisations have to reduce their energy consumption and reduce waste, luckily, both factors impact positively on their bottom line!

The third and final stage is to offset the carbon footprint. In the case of this EmissionZero initiative, all the Verified Emission Reductions are 100% Irish and verified and validated in accordance with the Voluntary Carbon Standard by UN accredited auditors.

In the case of a building or structure, the Carbon Footprint can be divided into two separate categories: Operational CO2 and Embodied CO2. The operational CO2 is the amount of Carbon released during the day to day running of a building (gas, electricity, etc…) and the embodied CO2 is the amount of CO2 released during the manufacture, supply and construction of a building.

The Convention Centre Dublin is the first convention centre in the world to apply the measure, reduce and offset principle. During its construction through the use of Ecocem Cement, the CCD reduced its Carbon Footprint by a massive 11,000 tonnes of CO2. Offsetting the unavoidable embodied Carbon Footprint means that the Convention Centre Dublin is the World’s first truly Carbon Neutral convention centre.

Conor O’Riain, Director of EmissionZero commented: “Make no mistake, Climate Change is the biggest challenge facing us today. We are very proud to be working with this group of organisations who are proving that economic growth and concern for the environment can go hand in hand.”