Why we decided to establish our carbon footprint
More and more companies are involved in a carbon footprint assessment in order to reduce the emissions due to their activities. Although PARIFEX is not subject to the obligation, the company has decided to begin a voluntary carbon footprint assessment program to complete its environmental policy.
Audrey Gasse, Continuous Improvement Manager, answers all the questions about this commitment.
🍀 Audrey Gasse, can you explain what a carbon footprint is?
The carbon footprint calculation is the total greenhous gas (GHG) emissions caused by an individual and an organization. Nowadays, many companies are defining an environmental policy in order to reduce their GHG through the carbon footprint. According to the French Agency for Ecological Transition (ADEME), it provides a deep analysis of the GHG generated by the different activities of the company.
🍀 What is the best method to calculate the carbon footprint?
The energy audit and the results are not an exact science. It is necessary to disconnect theory from pratice. The final figure is not a precise data but it enables to get a rough estimate. The most important is to repeat the calculation every year and get it decrease through the different actions. The main interest is to define the most harmful activities and deploy concrete actions to decrease the GHG throughout the years.
🍀 What are the challenges and issues for companies?
We want to take part in the global action. Calculating the carbon footpring shows to our customers, partners, etc., that the company is involved in a virtuous approach to protect the environment. It also enables the company to involve the employees who recognize themselves in this policy and share common values. Even if the figures must be considered with hindsight, a annual assessment leads to an evolution.
🍀 And as for PARIFEX?
PARIFEX is not obliged to calculate the carbon footprint but we want to take part in the change of the world. As we are also ISO 14001 certified, the assessment was an obvious step to strengthen our environmental commitment. We wanted to act beyond the certification’s requirements to be conscious of the most harmful activities and analyze the figures more deeply. It is a concrete process to know our energy costs.
🍀 Why PARIFEX decided to make this process internally?
Our employees have undergone training to get the necessary skills for the carbon footprint assessment. We absolutely wanted to deal with it internally since we considered that our employees are the best person to lead this project, they know PARIFEX better than anyone else. It is an motivating project and our employees have shared a lot of ideas and propositions for several years. It also allows them to express their environmental convictions and take part in the improvement of the company’s various process.
🍀 All the employees have been involved in the process?
We are convinced that they must be involved from the very start of the project to understand every action and every issue. It has been a very good approach to involve some of them, inform some others and teach them new things.
