Ant Packaging - Australia's First Carbon Neutral Plastics Factory
Effective Tuesday 10 June 2008 Ant Packaging Pty Ltd became Australia's
first Carbon Neutral plastics manufacturer. We have calculated our business'
emissions and have offset them with government certified carbon abatement
projects.
At Ant Packaging we recognize
there is a perception that plastics manufacturing is considered harmful to the
environment. The reality is that plastics are a effective use of a waste
product from the energy resource production process that would otherwise be
released to harm the ozone layer. However, we acknowledge that we use energy;
therefore we generate greenhouse gas emissions and thus are a contributor to climate
change.
We take our responsibility
seriously enough to have done something about it!
We recently commissioned local Byron Bay
company Cool Planet to prepare calculations for the carbon emissions associated
with our business operations. The results are published under the guidelines of
the Greenhouse Gas Protocol which is the most widely used international
accounting tool for building credible and effective programs for tackling
climate change.
Cool Planet calculated our
emissions to include electricity consumption, office supplies, product
distribution, plane transport and staff transport at an annual 559 tonnes of
GHG.
That total has now been offset by
the purchase of Renewable Energy Certificates from Greenpower approved
generators and Carbon Offsets from projects accredited by the Australian
Government's Greenhouse Friendly program. The projects involve the design and
installation of Photovoltaic Stand Alone Power Supply systems (solar panels) in
the Byron Shire and the Regional Resource Recovery Centre in Western Australia which diverts household
rubbish from landfill to compost. This project won last year's Greenhouse
Challenge Plus award for outstanding achievement in greenhouse gas abatement.
Ant Packaging will continue to
strive to be pro-active in its business practices. Becoming the first carbon
neutral plastics factory in Australia
is a positive step forward in helping to address the effects our industry has
on climate change. |