INDUSTRY FIRST: OFFSETTING CARBON FOOTPRINT IN TRADE SHOWS
Kimberly-Clark Professional implements a carbon-offsetting trade show strategy aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions, an important component of environmental sustainability.
Posted: November 22, 2010
Fast on the heels of unveiling its new environmentally responsible trade show booth in July, Kimberly-Clark Professional (Roswell, GA) is taking the next step in reducing the environmental impact of its trade show activities through a partnership with Carbonfund.org (Silver Spring, MD). Starting with its exhibit at the ISSA/INTERCLEAN Show in Orlando, KCP began offsetting the carbon emissions associated with its trade show activities and the activities of customers visiting its booth.
Carbon offsets are aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions, an important component of environmental sustainability. “Reducing our carbon footprint is one of the best ways that individuals and companies alike can lessen our impact on the Earth’s climate and provide for a more sustainable future,” says Lisa Morden, Global Sustainability Leader for Kimberly-Clark Professional. “Combined with our
sustainable trade show booth design, we now have a more holistic approach to environmental sustainability relating to trade show activities.”
To implement its carbon offsetting trade show program, KCP and its exhibit design firm, Expotechnik, have partnered with Carbonfund.org, a well-recognized nonprofit provider of carbon offsets and climate solutions organization. Kimberly-Clark Professional will work with Carbonfund.org to calculate the carbon dioxide emissions generated by employee travel, shipping of the trade show booth and related materials, hotel stays, meals eaten, and booth electricity use.
Based on those calculations, KCP will donate an equivalent amount of money to one of Carbonfund.org’s reforestation carbon reduction projects. The Amazon Forest Conservation Project, for example, will protect up to millions of acres from slash-and-burn forest clearing and prevent tens of millions of tons of greenhouse gas emissions. The project will also provide essential ecosystem services such as erosion control; water cycling, filtration and storage; nutrient recycling; and habitat for thousands of native Amazonian animal and plant species. Carbon offsets generated from these projects are then retired on behalf of KCP.
In what is likely to be an industry first, KCP also will offset the carbon dioxide emissions of the ISSA/INTERCLEAN attendees who visit its booth. Together with Carbonfund.org, Kimberly-Clark Professional will calculate the carbon dioxide emissions generated by attendees’ roundtrip travel, meals eaten, hotel room stays and their share of the event’s overall estimated energy usage. The new carbon offsetting program will become an integral part of Kimberly-Clark Professional’s Reduce Today, Respect Tomorrow global environmental sustainability program, which takes a big-picture approach to sustainability by seeking to reduce environmental impact at every stage of business activities.
In July, KCP unveiled a trade show booth made of materials comprised of approximately 90 percent post-consumer recycled, rented or re-used products. These materials are nearly 100 percent recyclable or re-usable, so that when the booth is no longer needed, the materials can be used again. In fact, about 60 percent of the materials are directly re-usable, meaning they can be returned to inventory without expending energy to recreate or recycle them. The booth design is also environmentally responsible in terms of use, weight, transportation, life cycle and the incorporation of audio-visual technology to reduce costly graphic production and impact on the environment.
WHAT ARE CARBON OFFSETS?
Carbon offsets are measured in metric tons of carbon-dioxide equivalents; one carbon offset represents the reduction of one metric ton of carbon dioxide or its equivalent in other greenhouse gases. Companies and other organizations may offset emissions in support of carbon reduction projects to comply with caps on the total amount of carbon dioxide they are permitted to emit. Organizations and individuals may also offset to mitigate their own greenhouse gas emissions from activities such as travel and electricity use.
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