As a party to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Australia has agreed to meet targets to reduce human-induced greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
Because Strategic Matters is committed to good environmental practices, our carbon footprint was assessed during the financial year 2012/13 (01 July 2012 – 30 June 2013 (inclusive)).
The purpose of the inventory was for the business to:
- understand what its carbon footprint is;
- assess methods and consider options for reducing its footprint; and
- position itself as ‘carbon responsible’ with a move to ‘carbon neutrality’ over time.
The assessment included a review of Scope 1 (direct emissions), Scope 2 (indirect emissions for electricity), and optional Scope 3 emissions (including air flights, mixed waste, paper consumption, water and upstream emissions).
Findings illustrated that Strategic Matters’ emissions are significantly below emissions for a comparable sized business. None the less, the business is aiming to reduce its GHG emissions by a further 20% by 2020 (compared with 2012/13).