Oracle has reduced its carbon footprint by partnering with impactChoice, for its Oracle Day 2009 11g product unveiling in Johannesburg.
According impactChoice, it assisted Oracle to provide attendees with certified micro carbon offset certificates to compensate for the carbon dioxide emitted from energy use at the event.
In an interview with Leonard Harley, Group MD of impactChoice, he said very few companies produce greenhouse gas audit reports for single events like it did for Oracle, as it is often difficult and expensive.
Harley explains that the company looked at what the biggest contributors to carbon emissions would be for an event of this nature, which were the fuel required to get attendees to the function and electricity usage at the event. It then combined the data to produce a greenhouse gas audit report.
“We took the data supplied by the Sandton Convention Centre on their kilowatt electricity usage for the venue, including common areas attendees might use, as well as information supplied by Oracle on attendees, and ran it through our certificate issuing and tracking exchange engine (Citex) to get an accurate micro carbon offset figure for each attendee. We calculated a figure of 26.33kg of CO2 - e for each attendee,” Harley explains.
Attendees, says Harley, were also given micro carbon offset certificates, which they could then take back to work to add to their respective companies' triple bottom line and add to the company's environmental sustainability report.
Nicky Sheridan, vice-president of CMUT and country leader of Oracle locally, says: “We understand that as a software organisation we still have a long way to go to get to the point where we want to be, but we are moving in the right direction with initiatives such as these. We are slowly starting to adopt more of a green culture.
“Even though the emissions reduction for this event only equates to some 11 tons CO2 -e, it still remains emissions that would have gone unchecked had Oracle not deployed our emissions reduction solution,” she adds.
“We trust that once companies realise environmental sustainability can be achieved without negative impact to shareholder value or the company bottom line, many more will start to take action and get actively involved in the global fight against climate change."
Siegfried Brits, MD of impactChoice SA says: “With environmental sustainability issues pressurising the planet and the reality of the problems that SA is facing in lieu of the energy crisis, both corporate SA and consumers alike are experiencing the realities and consequences surrounding these issues.
Brits further notes that imminent legislation pertaining to carbon tax, cap and trade systems and the reality of ever-increasing electricity tariffs will drive the manner in which companies and individuals will have to incorporate carbon management and energy efficiency strategies into their daily lives.
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