Welcome to the first part of the story about our journey into becoming a certified Carbon Zero company!

Climate Change is an issue we're all well aware of and like many others we have become increasingly concerned about the effects on our planet, community, families, and our own daily lives. We are aware of our contribution to the problem through greenhouse gas emissions and conscious of our transport choices and waste sent to landfill. Over the past few years we have made some good progress with reductions but we know we can do much better. 

We would like to share our journey, the highs, lows, lessons and 'oh sh*t' moments, in the hope that together we can make a difference that will have a positive impact now and for future generations.

So - where to start? That was the question we had to ask ourselves. We all agreed that first we needed to measure our emissions in order to know if our reduction efforts were working, to be able to set targets, and see our progress.

There was much deliberation on whether we should measure our emissions using free tools or look to get an external certification. We finally decided to partner with Toitu and are glad we did. The benefits to us are:

- Accurate science-based carbon calculations. We gather our data (like litres of diesel used), enter it into the online system, and our emissions are calculated for us.

- A dedicated account manager. We have regular meetings with Bronwyn who has been invaluable to guiding us through the process and answering a thousand questions. It's been great to have an actual person to bounce ideas off and guide our decisions around what we want to measure.

- External audit. Our first set of data will be audited later this year, so we know the work we've done is accurate.

- Credible certification with mandatory reduction strategies. The easy part, it turns out, is the measurement. What we actually do with that information can get really overwhelming. Toitu helps us to define our reduction pathway and holds us accountable to it.

- Alignment to people and business who share our vision. By signing up with a highly regarded organisation like Toitu we are showing that we are serious about reducing our carbon emissions - and we love working with people who feel the same.

This is how we have chosen to start our journey. We don't think there is a right or a wrong way, but we're really excited that we have made a first step and ready to get stuck into the real action.

Look out for our next post where we'll talk about our first years worth of carbon emissions.