Consulting engineering firm establishes its own carbon offset fund

Associated Engineering, a consulting engineering firm based in Edmonton, Alberta, with 600 staff across Canada, has announced a commitment to become “carbon neutral.” The initiative to become more environmentally responsible as a corporation involves implementing in-house measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The company is also establishing and financing its own Carbon Offset Fund, which involves investing in environmentally benign projects as “carbon offsets.”The announcement, released July 27, explains: “Carbon offsets enable anyone to reduce their carbon footprint by supporting projects that reduce carbon dioxide. Associated Engineering is taking the unique approach of establishing and managing its own carbon offset fund.” The company will use the fund to invest in projects in communities where its employees live and work. This policy is in order to ensure that the intended carbon offset is achieved.Lianna Mah, P.Eng. of the company explains that the amount of money set aside in the fund will be scaled up and down as the company begins to implement projects to offset carbon emissions. A reputable reference source will be used to calculate the amount required. Initially the company will use calculators provided by the Carbon Neutral Company for this analysis.
According to the company’s press release, a typical business such as Associated Engineering could generate in the order of 3,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents annually.
Associated Engineering has already undertaken measures to cut down on its carbon dioxide emissions by such practices as using video conferencing rather than travelling to meetings, recycling and reusing paper, and double-sided copying, and turning off lights and equipment during non-working hours. The company also encourages its employees to car pool, take transit or cycle to work.