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The Expedition Environmental Policy
One of the attractions of visiting the Arctic is that it remains one of the last few pristine environments on the planet. To play a part in destroying that environment in the process of visiting it would be appalling. That is why a major goal of The Carpe Diem Polar Expedition is to have a minimum impact on the environment throughout the period of the expedition. We will aim to be not just carbon neutral, but 'carbon negative' by offsetting at least twice as much carbon dioxide as is produced by our flights to and from Canada through a reputable offset program, planting native trees in the United Kingdom. We will ensure that we leave absolutely no litter during the expedition itself – ‘take only photographs, leave only footprints’. We shall also be taking advice from experts on the Polar region to ensure that, as much as possible, our presence and activity there has the least possible impact on the environment and native wildlife.
Carbon Offsetting
We have done some research into carbon offsetting, and have chosen a UK based not-for-profit organization called Growaforest. No one draws a salary, and they plant native broadleaf trees in diverse forestry projects in Lancashire. Visit their website:
www.growaforest.com
The Concept of being 'Carbon Negative':
Going Carbon Neutral is all the rage these days. Businesses are doing it. Politicians are doing it. Even individual households are doing it. There are various ways, the most immediate being to actually cut down on your carbon emissions as much as possible. But for those emissions that are unavoidable (or for which your green credentials aren't enough to justify the sacrifice!), the trend is to 'offset' your emissions in some way, the most popular of which is tree planting. Rather than rolling up your sleeves and putting your wellies on, most companies and individuals do this through third party organizations. The practice has come in for some criticism: mostly as a result of poor schemes that actually clear rainforest in South America in order to plant monoculture forests such as eucalyptus; and partly because tree planting is only a temporary way of sequestering carbon (when the tree dies and rots, the carbon is released - unless of course the wood is harvested and made into something durable!). That is why our Polar expedition will invest in broad leafed native trees in the UK, planted by a reputable not-for-profit organization.
However we feel that rather than simply offsetting our carbon emissions, we should go further. We will offset at least twice the amount of carbon dioxide that our expedition will generate, most of which will be produced by our return flights to Canada. This concept of being 'Carbon Negative' rather than simply carbon neutral is one that does not seem to have caught people's imagination as much as it should. It is a concept that we will use the expedition to publicize, although not fanatically. If everyone who currently tries to minimize their impact on the environment adopted this approach, then they would offset their own carbon emissions - plus those of the philistine in the next plane seat too! In time, if everyone adopted this philosophy, then we collectively will be moving in the right direction considerably faster, and at a reasonable individual cost. We would like to see not only individuals seeking to be carbon negative, but companies and organizations too. Perhaps it is too much to expect large companies to offset twice their carbon dioxide emissions, but if responsible companies make the effort to offset their emissions plus 10% say - then that will quickly build up to significant levels of CO2 sequestering. So - go carbon negative!
The Carpe Diem Trust Environmental Policy
In the pursuit of our goal to help provide opportunities for ordinary people to achieve extraordinary things, we recognise that our operation and the projects we support will inevitably have an impact on the environment. We wish to minimise and counter any potentially harmful effects of such activity wherever and whenever possible.
We have developed a policy statement which will enable us to set the standards by which our efforts towards helping people achieve their full potential can be carried out, with minimal or no social or environmental impact on our planet.
We have undertaken to help all people associated with The Carpe Diem Trust to understand and to implement the relevant aspects of this policy in their projects and expeditions, or their support to the trust. At Trustee level, The Carpe Diem Trust is committed to minimising the impact of its operation on the environment by means of a programme of continuous improvement.
In particular The Carpe Diem Trust will:
1. meet, and where appropriate, exceed the requirements of all relevant legislation - where no regulations exist The Carpe Diem Trust shall strive to set its own exacting standards;
2. promote recycling and the use of recycled materials, while reducing consumption of materials wherever possible;
3. minimise waste in all projects, and where waste is created ensure it is correctly disposed of;
4. promote an understanding and appreciation with its projects with regard to local environment, culture and respect wild life habitats;
5. monitor best practice, and off set its carbon emissions. Where possible to be carbon negative so as to offset more carbon than used in its activities to compensate for others who are not in a position to work for sustained environmental improvement
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BLUE Climate and Oceans Project
We have recently learned about a new project being set up by Conrad Humphreys Racing that perfectly sums up our team philosophy.
BLUE is a vehicle for raising awareness about the threat of man's activities to the health of our oceans and the resultant impact on global climate change. It will provide people with a way of being BLUE - by which individuals, corporations and governments can move towards a more balanced and harmonious way of living on earth. BLUE will aim to make caring for our environment COOL and will focus on a number of issues which if addressed could help to safeguard the life of our planet.
Sport, adventure and human endeavour can play a major part in highlighting and celebrating the beauty of our natural environment and the BLUETM PROJECT will use sport as a vehicle to engage with the consumer to actively play their part in caring about the health of our planet.
For more information, visit: www.theblueproject.org |
