Below is an overview of the Scope 1, 2, and 3 measures as part of our participation in the Net Zero Carbon Events initiative.
We use 2023 as the base year for our reporting, primarily because it was the first ‘full year’ after the COVID-19 pandemic that could be considered ‘normal.’
Scope 1: Direct Emissions
Our only direct COâ‚‚-emitting asset is our diesel car. Research has shown that our diesel car is very fuel-efficient, with emissions of 90 grams per kilometer.
Fuel consumption of the car occurs during travel to trade show projects and client meetings.
We reduce Scope 1 emissions by:
- Using bicycles or public transport exclusively for daily commuting.
- Opting for train travel instead of car travel for trade show visits.
- Refueling with HVO100 biodiesel instead of standard diesel (reducing COâ‚‚ emissions by up to 90%).
Scope 2/3: Indirect Emissions from Purchased Energy
Our office is located in The Social Hub in Delft, which is a Certified B Corporation.
Our office building in Delft currently owns a BREEAM New Built Very Good certificate, see also https://www.breeam.nl/projecten/the-student-hotel-delft-6586. There is a process going for having the building BREEAM In-Use certified for Part I and Part II. This is expected to be done in the course of 2025.
Both in the officebuilding and the home office green energy is being used for electricity consumption.
Electricity use causing co2 emission here is of course marginal. If we do not work in the office there is no difference in electricity use, apart from the few cups of coffee, the extra desk light, and the 1 or 2 prints a day. Similarly this goes for the home office. Technically speaking the electricity consumed in The Social Hub.
Scope 3: Other indirect emissions
For us, by far the largest carbon output is in scope 3.
And within scope 3 the biggest chunk of carbon emission goes into the production, transport, build up, dismantling of the stands, including travel of the build up team.
In 2024 we terminated cooperation with a Turkish supplier who executed projects with us in Western Europe. Whereas the idea was they would use their German premises, in practice all materials were produced in and transported from Turkey. All in all, we decided this was not sustainable and actually in breach with our core principals.
We have now, through 2 external partners, found a way to calculate the co2 carbon footprint per project.
Starting in 2025 we will calculate the co2 carbon footprint of every stand project. This data we will use to, together with our suppliers, bring down this number over the years, where the main elements we will consider are;
- – Re use of materials, meaning that in the design phase we will already have reuse of floor and wall elements, hanging elements, furniture etc. in mind.
- – Choice of (environmental friendly) building materials, i.e. through an external partner we can realize expostands made of recycled cardboard
- – (More) environmental friendly travel and transport
When it comes to our own travel, excluding the build up team, we already made much more use of public transport, compared to car travel, as we would do before 2024. Flying remained necessary, we will however start compensating the co2 output of our travel.
For our website we obtained a co2 neutral certificate. This means that the hosting and usage of our website is now co2 neutral. Also our cloud server provider ensures us that our data is kept in a co2 neutral way.
Again, the main reduction the coming years however is to come from our suppliers. But we will give them the necessary input by calculating for them the co2 footprint for the stand project. In this way we will ‘discover’ where the co2 output is big, where we can have the biggest impact. We will also supply this information to our clients, as an additional service. But also to assist them with their CSRD reporting and with their own co2 reduction.
We have started discussing co2 reduction with our partners. From 2025 ‘co2 reduction’ will play a major role in selecting new partners. Every new partner needs to convince us that they at least have ‘serious plans’ and commitment to reduce co2 of their activities, before they could possibly become one of our new partners.
Mangrove tree planting initiative
2024 is the year we started our initiative to plant 1 mangrove tree (a giant obsorber of co2) for every 100 Euros of turnover spent with us.
This initiative was very well received by our clients and is of course a major step in offsetting co2 in scope 3.
See also; https://globalexpostand.com/a-good-start-is-half-the-battle/
This update is an update of the roadmap earlier communicated via https://globalexpostand.com/road-to-net-0-carbon-events/. In case they are in conflict, the text of 30 December 2024 precedes.