We are pleased to announce that we have retained our Carbon Neutral Plus status.
Carbon Neutral Plus requires an organisation to offset 125% of its carbon emissions. This is better Net Zero Carbon, where offsetting equals the total carbon emissions.
The recent independent assessment of our 2023 carbon emissions showed that our market-based emissions in 2023 totalled 223.43 tonnes. We therefore chose to offset 280 tonnes of carbon emissions to offset over 125% of our emissions. This was split equally between the two verified carbon offsetting projects.
The two projects that we have decided to support this year are a safe drinking water project in Northern Uganda and an afforestation project in Uruguay. Both projects have been independently verified to ensure that they meet the stringent requirements of the Quality Assurance Standard (QAS) for carbon offsetting.
Above: Northern Uganda clean water project.
Northern Uganda Safe Water Project
The clean drinking water project in Uganda works with local communities in Northern Uganda to identify and repair broken boreholes. This not only allows locals access to clean, safe water but also means that they no longer need to boil the water before they use it, saving firewood and reducing carbon emissions.
Many existing boreholes in the area are owned by the community and have fallen into disrepair due to the cost of maintaining and managing the boreholes. The safe water project works with them to supply a maintenance programme to ensure that clean, safe water is available.
The project is vetted to Gold Standard’s Verified Emission Reductions, ensuring that there is no duplication of carbon offsetting credits and that the credits accurately assess the offsetting amount.
Above: afforestation project in Uruguay.
Afforestation in Uruguay
The afforestation project in Uruguay involves improvements to the land through sustainable forestry. Trees are planted on the degraded grassland to help improve the topsoil while following the FSC standard to also enhance biodiversity conservation.
The project also helps bring new income and job opportunities to the local area while keeping existing grazing land for cattle farmers.
The trees absorb and store the carbon from the atmosphere. The trees used in the project are fast-growing trees that can be cut down after 16 – 22 years to utilise the timber and benefit the local community. The trees are then replanted in rotation to maintain the forestry.
This project is vetted by VERRA under their Verified Carbon Standard, and it is an ongoing project with the first areas being planted in 2006.
Planting trees in Kenya
In addition to the two carbon offsetting projects, Carbon Footprint Ltd. (who we have chosen to independently assess our emissions) also plants a tree in Kenya for every 10 tonnes of carbon that we offset. This helps to improve biodiversity, employment opportunities, and further reduce carbon in the atmosphere.
By choosing to offset 280 emissions, this means that an additional 28 trees will be planted.
The Sash Window Workshop and Carbon Neutral Plus
At The Sash Window Workshop, we believe that it is important to be as sustainable as possible. While in an ideal world we would reduce our emissions to zero, we recognise that this is not possible while running a business and maintaining the high-quality of our products and customer service.
We therefore look to offset more than our total carbon emissions. We believe that we were the first window company in the UK to do this, originally achieving Carbon Neutral Plus status in 2022.
Find out more:
Sustainability at The Sash Window Workshop
How to identify environmentally friendly windows and doors
Our environment and sustainability
