The much-publicised 'Stern Review', released on 30 October 2006, warned of irreversible climate change, due to carbon emmissions leading to global warming. If you hire projectors, PA systems or Plasma Screens on an adhoc basis you are probably hiring from a company, who delivers and collects from you. Every time you hire in this way, the carbon footprint gets bigger.
There are a number of carbon off-setting schemes around but do they really work?
"A lot of companies across all industry types have jumped on the 'environmentally friendly band wagon', usually with nothing more than some shallow carbon off-setting scheme to give them a tinge of green"
Believe it or not most of these carbon off-setting schemes you see advertised do not actually compensate for the emission of Greenhouse gases. For example:
Tree planting
Did you know a typical tree can only absorb 1 tonne of CO2 over 100 years?
Fact - most new tree plantations cause more CO2 to be released than they absorb through the soil. Old trees/ancient trees/forests are much more adept at absorbing CO2 yet we are chopping down great swathes of rainforests. Tree planting in Europe is of little benefit in the first 10 years and river beds can dry up as a consequence. Tree planting in cold climates, e.g. Scandinavia and Russia is worse for the environment because sunlight is absorbed, heating up the atmosphere instead of being reflected back into space by snow and ice. In fact there is only a narrow band in the tropics where the planting of trees would have a beneficial effect. According to Our Ecological Footprint, (Wackemagel & Rees, 1996), a whole forest only absorbs approximately 3 tons of CO2 per acre of trees per year.
One projector hired 4 x per month creates 1 tonne of CO2 mainly through logistics (97%). A third of an acre of trees to compensate for one customer hiring a projector!
Wind Turbines
A single 500-kilowatt (kW) wind turbine, typical of those now being installed in power plants around the world, produces roughly 1 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity annually. Equates to a carbon offset of approx 688 tonnes per annum or 0.078 tonnes per hour.
Fact - A lorry travelling at 50 mph produce approx..0.08 tonnes of CO2 per hour. That’s a lot of wind turbines required!
Hydro Power Stations
Fact - most new tree plantations cause more CO2 to be released than they absorb through the soil. Old trees/ancient trees/forests are much more adept at absorbing CO2 yet we are chopping down great swathes of rainforests. Tree planting in Europe is of little benefit in the first 10 years and river beds can dry up as a consequence. Tree planting in cold climates, e.g. Scandinavia and Russia is worse for the environment because sunlight is absorbed, heating up the atmosphere instead of being reflected back into space by snow and ice. In fact there is only a narrow band in the tropics where the planting of trees would have a beneficial effect. According to Our Ecological Footprint, (Wackemagel & Rees, 1996), a whole forest only absorbs approximately 3 tons of CO2 per acre of trees per year.
One projector hired 4 x per month creates 1 tonne of CO2 mainly through logistics (97%). A third of an acre of trees to compensate for one customer hiring a projector!
Wind Turbines
A single 500-kilowatt (kW) wind turbine, typical of those now being installed in power plants around the world, produces roughly 1 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity annually. Equates to a carbon offset of approx 688 tonnes per annum or 0.078 tonnes per hour.
Fact - A lorry travelling at 50 mph produce approx..0.08 tonnes of CO2 per hour. That’s a lot of wind turbines required!
Hydro Power Stations
Upto 75 percent of organic matter is blocked from flowing downstream and this builds up at the bottom of the enormous artificial lake in front of the dam. The net result of this is the release of vast amounts of harmful methane and nitrous oxide, Methane is 20 times more harmful and nitrous oxide 200 times more harmful than CO2. There is also this issue the CO2 impact in the construction of the dam and that of destroying vast natural habitats and flooding valleys, Land, trees etc.
My point...Sorry to have gone on a bit but you can now see my point that most carbon credit/offsetting schemes are merely a smoke screen to satisfy the conscious of people and businesses to reassure them that they are 'doing their bit for the planet' and compensating for the pollution that they are producing. It's like drinking Coke to quench your thirst, when the only thing that can rehydrate you is water. In other words, a reduction in pollutants producing CO2 and other harmful Greenhouse gases is the only answer, not publicity seeking carbon off-setting schemes.
We have a solution that actually takes vehicles off the road and if the whole AV industry and related customer market place adopted this, we could save over 5,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions per annum. Timer-chip technology in rented AV equipment (projectors, PA systems and plasma screens) means items can stay on site, which cuts out around 50,000 miles of vehicle deliveries and collections per month. This solution also saves the venue money, as it is only charged for the actual usage time of the equipment which, in turn, makes it convenient for on-site staff and encourages them to switch off equipment between sessions prior to the equipment’s five minute automatic time-out.
We estimate that we have reduced our own overall CO2 emissions by 77% from 215 to 49 tonnes per annum through our unique ‘pay-as-you-go’ projectors.
This small change in the way you hire audio visual equipment will help reduce your carbon impact. I am sure there are other solutions and initiatives that could be shared with the industry in order to help us all reduce emissions throughout our industry, so lets hear them.
My point...Sorry to have gone on a bit but you can now see my point that most carbon credit/offsetting schemes are merely a smoke screen to satisfy the conscious of people and businesses to reassure them that they are 'doing their bit for the planet' and compensating for the pollution that they are producing. It's like drinking Coke to quench your thirst, when the only thing that can rehydrate you is water. In other words, a reduction in pollutants producing CO2 and other harmful Greenhouse gases is the only answer, not publicity seeking carbon off-setting schemes.
We have a solution that actually takes vehicles off the road and if the whole AV industry and related customer market place adopted this, we could save over 5,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions per annum. Timer-chip technology in rented AV equipment (projectors, PA systems and plasma screens) means items can stay on site, which cuts out around 50,000 miles of vehicle deliveries and collections per month. This solution also saves the venue money, as it is only charged for the actual usage time of the equipment which, in turn, makes it convenient for on-site staff and encourages them to switch off equipment between sessions prior to the equipment’s five minute automatic time-out.
We estimate that we have reduced our own overall CO2 emissions by 77% from 215 to 49 tonnes per annum through our unique ‘pay-as-you-go’ projectors.
This small change in the way you hire audio visual equipment will help reduce your carbon impact. I am sure there are other solutions and initiatives that could be shared with the industry in order to help us all reduce emissions throughout our industry, so lets hear them.
Dave Savage
Managing Director
HotAV Ltd
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