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Employee Education and Awareness Campaigns

Carbon tax legislation has become a burning issue of late amongst the global community. The arrival of carbon taxes in South Africa and their impact on businesses has been the catalyst to propel what for so long has been mostly a topic of conversation into an executive level priority. For those many businesses and people who are not aware of the variety of carbon management tools and services available, this transition has the potential to be slightly daunting. The truth is that this is an excellent progression, and one of the key areas to begin looking at is employee awareness.

GCX is constantly working on providing our clients with tools to aid in carbon and energy management. We like to encourage implementing simple, yet impactful, adaptation and one of the key areas that the GCX education department focuses on is employee education and awareness campaigns.

The National Environmental Education Foundation White paper 2010 states that the “business case” — that is, the quantification of opportunities and risks — for environmental and sustainability education might not yet be heavy on data. But anecdotes from around the world give clear indications that teaching employees to conserve, recycle, improve efficiency and reduce waste, among other actions, have benefits for employees, companies and communities. Sustainability is no longer just “nice to have” and employees are an important resource for addressing and benefiting from this shift.

Incorrect staff conduct can account for up to 15% of a company’s total carbon emissions. Every day, employees make decisions that hold significant environmental consequences. Decisions about habitual activities such as commuting to work; setting heating and cooling systems; purchasing paper or even kitchen equipment affect a company’s carbon footprint. It therefore makes sense, that a great place to start reducing emissions is through building an internal culture of ‘green’ behaviour.

Many companies have benefited from the immediate results of launching a carbon and energy awareness campaign in their organisations. Nokia Siemens Networks measure employee awareness of environmental responsibility through an annual employee engagement survey and continually aim for improvement by encouraging awareness through initiatives such as environmental E-learning modules and competitions.

In addition to interactive, internet based, presentations and competitions; a broad range of exciting materials are available that are suited to all staff levels, from office workers to labourers. Such as, pocketbooks for staff, lunchtime workshops, monthly story boards/comics, brochures and poster series, signs for your facilities/offices and case studies.

This is your toolkit to creating awareness and instilling efficient behavioural changes amongst your employees. This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it to discuss how we can work together to create a campaign tailored perfectly to your staff and their working environment.

Carrie Freeman, a corporate sustainability strategist at Intel, noted in a Green Teams report, “When it comes to looking at ways to reduce our footprint, we very much see a direct correlation between reducing our costs and engaging our employees.”

GCX responds to FinWeek article on Socially Responsible Investing

In the 18 August issue of FinWeek magazine, the cover story title was “Tree-hugging – Not an investment strategy” (subscribers only) and the article itself focused on the performance of socially responsible investments versus regular investments. While the article raised some pertinent points, the general sentiment was don’t bother with socially responsible investments as they don’t pay off.

Kevin James, CEO of Global Carbon Exchange was quoted in the article and by association; it seems he agrees with the sentiments in the article. However, Kevin does not fully agree and has prepared a response to FInWeek that we have shared below.

Barrows reduces Absolute Co2 emissions while growing revenue

In early 2010 Barrows, retail marketing specialist with its head office in Durban, South Africa commissioned Global Carbon Exchange (GCX) to conduct a carbon footprint assessment of their business. The concept of sustainability is nothing new at Barrows; it’s something the company has been passionate about for nearly a decade and significant strides have been made during this time to ensure the company consistently enhanced their environmental strategy.

GCX Launches Carbon Footprint Analyst Level 2!!

The moment so many of our past students have been waiting for - GCX is now introducing Carbon Footprint Analyst Level 2.
If you have already completed the Level 1 certification, and have conducted a business carbon footprint, or are a consultant that has embarked on this journey alone and now needs further guidance, CFA 2 is your next step.
The first course will be held on the 29th November 2010 in Cape Town over 3 days. On completion, learners will have the skills and knowledge to conduct specialised carbon footprints and be able to analyse a large multinational organisations’ carbon footprint.

Unlocking the Eco-Advantage for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SME’s).

With big business fast recognising the benefits of addressing and enhancing their triple bottom line performance, many small businesses struggle to understand the business case going down the sustainability road. This is based on the misguided belief by small business owners that their carbon footprint is insignificant and therefore any action taken to mitigate this impact would be seemingly meaningless in the greater scheme of things and would go unnoticed.
Besides the fact that the aggregate impact of the total number of SME’s in South Africa is actually a massive contributor to the country’s total carbon footprint, a massive opportunity does exist for these companies to unlock their eco-advantage by weaving sustainability into the fabric of their business.

Business Day: Road map to Green Reform

A wise person said that “every ocean begins with a drop of water”, which is another way of saying that even small steps are progress if taken in the right direction, according to Ed Gluckman MD at GCX.
“A shining example of this truth is the journey that many companies embark on to gain their ‘eco-advantage’, which I define as a company’s opportunity for growth and profitability through a focus on environmental sustainability,” he adds.

GCX partners in World Cup Offset Project

Global Carbon Exchange is the official local partner to Do-inc and Lemnis Lighting for the LED retrofit programme that will be used as one of the carbon offset projects for the FIFA World Cup 2010.

“This is a watershed project for GCX and we are proud to be associated with the World Cup 2010 in South Africa while being amongst the first South African carbon project initiators to undertake a programmatic CDM project”, said GCX Director Kevin James.

GCX’S own carbon footprint

“We have a footprint!!!!” boasts GCX after concluding their baseline footprint with an incredibly low total of 56.2 tonnes CO2e for 2009. Since conducting a carbon footprint for their first ever South African client, St Elmo’s in 2008 GCX had been in a position of ‘the cobblers child never has shoes’ but can now act as inspiration to their clients and the market place alike. CEO, Kevin James, comments that, "GCX is proud of the fact that we have been able to keep the impact of our commercial activities on the environment down to a minimum as it is critical to be able to lead by example when addressing the impact of our clients businesses on the environment".

New GCX Residential Eco-Auditor Course

GCX’s new Residential Eco-Auditor course will be launched in September this year and is the first of its kind in the country. Once completed, learners will have the skills to convert any home into an efficient, low impact, cost effective household and will be able to identify solutions across all areas of sustainability.

The course is filled with practical exercises and examples and the topics are as follows: Energy – Heating and cooling, Lighting, Appliances, Hot water systems, Pools and spa’s; Water; Waste Management; Domestic Contaminants; the Eco-audit and an introduction into renewable energy.

Trading Carbon: Report on Energy Efficiency featuring GCX

GCX MD Ed Gluckman, was interviewed on the importance of energy efficiency in greenhouse gas emissions mitigation by Trading Carbon, the world’s leading carbon market magazine. This special report highlights energy efficiency as being a low cost area for greenhouse gas emissions mitigation and explores why energy efficiency doesn’t feature high on the carbon market agenda.

Read the article here.

GCX Courses: What past students say

GCX brought their first course, Carbon Footprint Analyst (CFA), to market just less than 1 year ago. With fresh content, and South Africa’s leading carbon professionals delivering the course, the impact on the market was instant. Having certified over 150 individuals from vastly different backgrounds, the reasons for why people choose to become certified differ as greatly as their backgrounds.

“I naively thought I would be able to do a complete footprint taking into account all the elements that need to be calculated. Soon after I had started with the process I learned a few very valuable lessons,” said Arlene Gorgeson of Metropolitan Holdings on her first incomplete carbon footprint attempt in 2007.

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