ION is Belgium's first carbon neutral property developer
ION has recently become a carbon neutral enterprise. ION allowed itself to be audited by the renowned company CO2logic. As a result of that audit, ION has compensated for its CO2 emissions, making it completely carbon neutral.
The first
CO2logic mapped ION’s CO2 emissions. That exercise revealed that the company emitted the equivalent of 50 tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2015.
Based on the audit’s results, CO2logic formulated several recommendations to reduce the carbon footprint. Some of these are extremely simple to put into practice, such as ensuring that all company vehicles have the correct tyre pressure. This simple intervention can reduce annual CO2 emissions by no less than 5% (or 1.5 tonne of CO2 per year).
ION decided to repeat this analysis on an annual basis. The objective is twofold: to reduce our own CO2 emissions and to offset these emissions each year. Offsetting means that companies can compensate for their emissions by reducing the same emissions elsewhere. More specifically, ION has chosen to support a project to save trees in Uganda this year, where 95% of the population relies on wood and charcoal for cooking. The project introduces wood stoves (that can be purchased locally). Each stove reduces CO2 emissions by a good 40%. Moreover, the use of the wood stoves significantly reduces the emission of harmful smoke that causes respiratory illnesses; these are still the main cause of death among children in Africa.
By switching to mainly green energy, ION had already considerably reduced its carbon footprint (amounting to a CO2 reduction of 7.6 tonnes). The audit by CO2logic has enabled the company to take the next step in the right direction. ION intends to have a similar audit conducted every year, in order to continue to cut CO2 emissions and to encourage both our employees and other companies to follow our lead.