At Flight Ecology, we take our environmental responsibility seriously. As ecological consultants, we provide sound environmental advice to a range of client. However, we feel that is just as important to address the unnecessary wastage and carbon expenditure within our own operations as well.

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At Flight Ecology, we are striving towards a carbon neutral operation. We feel we can achieve this through the reduction of unnecessary wastage and carbon usage along with a program of carbon offsetting.

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What are we doing at present?

In order to try and reduce our company carbon footprint, we are undertaking the following;

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• Car-sharing, where possible;

• Pursuing contracts that are close to our offices, thus reducing unnecessary mileage;

• Working from home (even before Covid), to reduce unnecessary commuting;

• Conducting meetings via video-conferencing, where possible;

• Conducting training via video-conferencing, where viable;

• Undertaking low (or no)-print surveys - not printing plans or documents unless completely necessary, and recording more data via digital means;

• Using rechargeable batteries in our survey kit;

• Obtaining electricity from sustainable energy providers (in our case Ecotricity);

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Why Carbon Offset?

We concede that it is impossible to undertake the services that we offer without the production of carbon. We have identified that our main expenditure is travel to and from survey and training sites. Although we have plans to operate with electric cars in the future, this is not an economically viable option at present.

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We have therefore decided to instigate a carbon offsetting scheme, to compensate for mileage that we undertake. At the end of each financial year, we total the mileage of the work we have undertaken and convert it into a carbon weight using the World Land Trust offsetting calculator. A donation of the appropriate amount is then made to the either the World Land Trust scheme or a small local scheme.

 

We have previously chosen the World Land Trust to donate to as they are a well-established international charity that specialise in land acquisition for conservation purposes. This means that the donated money is used to secure valuable and ecologically diverse land, and not used to simply plant conifer saplings in a relatively ecological sterile landscape.

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However, we are also forging ties with local projects aimed at providing vegetation cover for the Lake District, which has been historically deforested and therefore is vulnerable to erosion and habitat destruction. We are currently working with Buy Land Plant Trees

 

Client Involvement

As part of our commitment, each of our clients will be entered into the scheme. In this way, the end recipient is encouraged to take responsibility and ownership of the incurred carbon costs. There is also a benefit of spreading the costs more widely (a typical bat survey might only incur a carbon cost of £7.50*), so that expenses are not weighted too heavily on one steak-holder.

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Flight Ecology also feel that by involving clients in the decision to carbon offset for their projects, we will provoke a conversation about the wider social responsibilities and potentially encourage more organisations to consider their role in the carbon crisis.

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The carbon charge (*) is calculated using the WLT carbon calculator, which is added to a base minimum rate per job (£5), which also covers other carbon costs, such as printing, electrical expenditure, expendables and unforeseen or non-accounted journeys.

 

Please note: All the money from the offsetting scheme will be donated to the World Land Trust - there is no admin charge.

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If you do not wish to be part of the carbon offsetting scheme then you can easily opt out of it. The Fee Proposal contains a box that you can tick to opt out, or you can notify Flight Ecology in writing.

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We hope you will join us in doing our bit to tackle the increasing climate crisis by being part of our carbon offsetting scheme.

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