The David Suzuki Foundation's Program

The David Suzuki Foundation’s carbon neutral program is based on a user-friendly guide published by the World Resources Institute, Working 9 to 5 on Climate Change: An Office Guide.

Using this guide, all of the Foundation’s major greenhouse gas emission sources were identified by staff. Steps have also been taken to reduce these emissions where feasible. However, because the David Suzuki Foundation’s operations are already quite green, opportunities to reduce emissions further are limited.

For example, the Foundation:

• Is located in a highly efficient building that is heated and cooled by a clean geothermal heat pump system
  
• Has relatively low electricity use, with most lighting being either compact fluorescent or fluorescent
  
• Uses low-energy LCD computer monitors, and the photocopier is an award-winning model because of its extremely low energy consumption
  
• Uses 100% post-consumer recycled, FSC-certified paper in its photocopier and printers (all of which have duplexing units), as well as in most publications. Unwanted single-sided documents are collected and reused
  
• Has a comprehensive waste management system that includes multiple materials recycling and composting
  
• Is located on one of Vancouver’s best-served transit corridors, so the majority of employees travel by transit. Most other employees either bike or walk to work. Hence the overall emissions associated with commuting are quite low
  
• Has chosen a courier company that uses some hybrid electric vehicles for their deliveries

Future reduction efforts will focus on reducing the use of air travel - for example, in 2007 the Foundation purchased a teleconferencing system- and also on reducing electricty use even more (e.g. with occupant-sensor lighting).

The following four categories were identified by staff as comprising the vast majority of the Foundation’s greenhouse gas emissions. For each emissions source, a system has been put in place for gathering activity data:

1. Air travel: Inventories are facilitated by the use of a single travel agent which automatically calculates the distance of each flight booked, and provides monthly reports.
2. Electricity: Emissions are easily calculated from data provided by the Foundation's utility.
3. Paper use: The Foundation’s printing company provides a monthly total (in pounds of paper) of all products including reports, brochures, business cards, forms, cheques, etc. Office paper used for the photocopier and printers is totalled separately.
4. Staff commuting: Emissions are calculated by using the same data from the annual Commuter Challenge event
5. Events: Emissions from all major events hosted by the Foundation (e.g. conferences, bus tours, etc.) are tracked by the event organizers.

Once the data is collected, an emissions inventory is completed by staff using calculation tools from the GHG Protocol.

The Foundation will not be inventorying smaller emission sources such as: electricity transmission and distribution losses; methane from the small amount of compost and garbage that is generated; staff use of taxis, rental cars, buses & trains while on business travel; air travel by Foundation partners and consultants not paid for by the Foundation; or shipping and courier services. Also not included are lifecycle emissions from items such as furniture, computers, carpeting, and miscellaneous office supplies aside from printer and copier paper, or the upper atmospheric impacts of air travel, as data for many of these materials do not yet exist. Also, because the science around the upper atmospheric impacts of air travel is still unresolved, the Foundation will not include a multiplier when calculating the emissions from air travel by staff.

At the end of each fiscal year, the Foundation purchases carbon offsets from projects that meet The Gold Standard to offset all of its emissions. The Foundation is currently purchasing Gold Standard offsets from the Malavalli biomass project through the not-for-profit Canadian offset vendor, Planetair.

The Foundation reports its annual greenhouse gas emissions in its Annual Report. The data for the latest fiscal year can be found here (see second to last page: 'David Suzuki Foundation Greenhouse Gas Emissions 2005–06').  

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