Forest Carbon, Edinburgh International Conference Centre (EICC) and the Borders Forest Trust have a three way partnership that enables organisations to run events at EICC that have mitigated the impact of their CO2 emissions with woodland creation projects in Scotland.
EICC's Plan-it green programme offers organisers a detailed assessment of the environmental impact of their event - including, for example, energy, food and drink and paper consumption - as well as advice on how to reduce it. Once the net impact is known this is converted to tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions equivalent and these can be mitigated with Woodland Carbon Code certified tree-planting.
The process is straightforward - once an event's likely impact is assessed the organisers will be offered the chance to liaise with Forest Carbon directly to discuss mitigation. Once the intention to mitigate has been agreed organisers can start using Woodland Carbon Code logos and making statements about their actions in their event literature and PR. Forest Carbon will provide all the support needed to help organisers word things correctly and get the most from their environmental commitment.
After the event is complete a final footprint will be generated; this should be in line with the initial estimate. Organisers will complete the purchase of Woodland Carbon Code credits, and they will be delivered to the organisers carbon registry account so they can transparently demonstrate that their environmental commitment was fulfilled.
Forest Carbon and the Borders Forest Trust have a long standing partnership and between them they have planted in excess of 1,000 acres of new native woodland, all for carbon capture. These woodlands, including Alder, Aspen, Birch, Cherry, Hawthorn, Hazel, Holly, Juniper, Oak, Rowan, and Willow, are protected in perpetuity and are open to the public. They offer many additional benefits to society beyond capturing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, including flood mitigation, biodiversity protection and enhancement, pollutant scrubbing and recreation.
By capturing the emissions from an EICC event via this partnership organisations are ensuring a long term and positive local consequence, using the only UK government backed UK based carbon standard there is.
