Follow our step-by-step guide to reducing carbon emissions and offsetting your carbon footprint

BUSINESS travel can account for around 25 per cent of a company’s carbon footprint, and, according to the World Resources Institute (WRI), transport-related carbon dioxide emissions from industrial countries nearly doubled in the space of 16 years, between 1971 and 1997. Portman Travel’s research revealed that in 2005, staff racked up 26.5billion miles flying on business – generating 5.4m tonnes of CO2 emissions in the process. Road transport alone produces around a quarter of all emssions in the UK. But there are solutions to help reduce the footprint left behind by business travel. “How you can run and develop a business smoothly, while treading as lightly as possible on the earth is a thorny problem,” says Sue Welland, founder of The Carbon-Neutral Company. “But there are ways to reduce emissions – through offsets and behaviour change – and, even better, you can reduce costs at the same time.” Follow her five easy steps to a more planet-friendly future.

STEP 1: Measure the energy used in your company's business travel to understand where the bulk of your impacts are coming from. Companies like ours can assist in preparing carbon dioxide reports to help you better understand your carbon liabilities.

STEP 2: Reduce your carbon emissions at home. Set targets to reduce your carbon emissions at source. You could save 1kg of carbon dioxode every day by walking or cycling to work instead of taking the car.

STEP 3: Reduce carbon emissions at work. Driving for 65 miles with your tyres at the correct pressure could save 1kg of carbon dioxide. Or you could save up to 10 tonnes of CO2 emissions by ten of your travellers taking train trips instead of flying. You could also consider changing the profile of your vehicle fleet or use videoconferencing facilities when face-to-face meetings aren't strictly necessary.

STEP 4: Consider counteracting your company emissions through carbon offsetting schemes. To help meet targets or achieve net zero carbon dioxide output, you can pay organisations like the CarbonNeutral Company to 'neutralise' unavoidable CO2 emissions through carbon offsetting schemes. A verified carbon offset project is one which uses money to invest in certified projects that will save carbon dioxide and would not have happened if you had not contrib-uted the money. The CarbonNeutral Company has projects operating in Europe, North America, Africa and Asia, including forestry, methane capture and renewable energy projects. At one location in India, for example, work is underway to replace carbon-intensive kerosene with solar power. So, when you pay a carbon offsetting company to carbon offset, for every one tonne of CO2 that you or your company produces, your money enables one tonne to be saved through a project somewhere else in the world.

STEP 5: Communicate. If you achieve net zero CO2 through a carbon-offsetting programme, you can use our CarbonNeutral logo. It’s important to let everyone know what you have done, and to encourage others to follow suit.

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