Green Trees, Green Ethics
Going Carbon Neutral - The Numbers
We need to figure out how much carbon our business produces by adding up all the aspects of our business that create carbon. You can see our calculations below.
Total calculation:
Laptops - 0.02 tonnes of carbon
Site lighting - 0.08 tonnes of carbon
Delivery from suppliers – 1.22 tonnes of carbon
Daily transport for trees - 1.41 tonnes of carbon
Netting - 0.72 tonnes of carbon
Customer car journey (both ways) to us to pick tree – 2.56 tonnes of carbon
Customer journey (both ways) to the recycle centre – 2.56 tonnes of carbon
Methane created by tree if not chipped – 14.40 tonnes of carbon
Total: 22.94 tonnes of Carbon
With Gold Standard we have therefore offset 23 tonnes by purchasing 23 credits.
You can see our certificate here.
For the breakdown and more detail of the calculations, where the figures have come from and more, please click below.
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Our (Green Christmas Tree’s) carbon footprint:
Our (Green Christmas Tree’s) carbon footprint:
First energy bill: laptop’s running time for prep and during season, 590 hours running time, this is 22kg of Carbon (37 grams of carbon per hour)
3 sets of Festoon lights plus 3 sets of Christmas lights at each site, all running for 12 hours a day for 25 days over 3 sites: 81kg of Carbon (15g per hour per set of lights roughly).
Trucks delivering trees from our supplier, round trip distance to supplier 168km, we have 8 lorries deliver trees to us so a total of 1344km of travel in a 17.5 tonne lorry: 1223Kg of Carbon (910g of carbon per km)
Every day we have to drive all the trees from our storage to our 3 sites in 3 individual vans. The average distance of the 3 sites from our storage is 27km. We multiply this by 6 journeys per day in total for the 3 vans. Then multiply by 25 days of trading totals 4050km of travel. Total 1417kg of Carbon (350g of carbon per km for a large long wheel base van).
Netting, most plastic (98%) is made directly form fossil fuels, the netting we use weighs in at around 120kg in total, to produce this amount of plastic produces 720kg of carbon (per kg of plastic manufactured 6kg of carbon produced)
Your journey to visit us and choose your Christmas tree, we are estimating that the site is for the average person a 14km round trip. With 1500 trees roughly being sold across the 3 sites that is a total of 21000km. Total is 2562Kg of carbon (average car creates 122 grams of carbon per kilometre)
Your dump run; we are estimating that the dump is for the average person a 14km round trip, so again a total of 21000km. Total is once again 2562Kg of carbon rounded up from (average car creates 122 grams of carbon per kilometre)
When a tree is decomposing it creates methane which has 25 times more effect than carbon in terms of warming the planet. Almost everyone will take their tree to the dump or will be collected by the council. Either of these options mean the tree will be chipped meaning that the methane produced will be lowered by 80%. To be pessimistic and make sure we are covering the methane produced we are covering 60% of our trees as if they were all left to rot in the garden. So of the 1500 that’s 900 trees will give off if left to decompose completely 640kg of methane. To convert it into carbon multiply it by 25 and it’s the equivalent 14.4 tonnes of carbon (per tree equivalent of 16kg of carbon per tree or 640g of methane)
Total: 22.97 tonnes of Carbon
Total: 22.97 tonnes of Carbon
Of the 23 tonnes, 85% is from the last three on the list.
Top tip, make sure your Tree gets chipped! This will reduce the methane released by 80%!! For your tree to be chipped simply take it to your local recycling centre (or if it gets picked up by your council they will chip it too).
As you can see not only have we covered ourselves, we’ve covered you too! So that you know throughout the entire process of you coming to buy your tree, the environment has been thought of and taken care of every step of the way. We’ve even taken into account your trip to the recycle centre!
As a final calculation we have also included the methane produced by a tree if it ends up in landfill, the largest polluter by a country mile! Although please note that there are ways you can reduce this by up to 80%! How?
What you can do to help with disposing of your tree
As mentioned before, if you don’t get your tree chipped that will have a negative impact on the environment due to the decomposing tree releasing methane. Fortunately simply talking it to the recyle centre or if this service is available in you are getting it picked up by your council will take care of that option.
However, interestingly enough there is another option that is just a effective at reducing the amount of methane released even if it does seem counter intuitive. If it is safe to do so, and in an area where you have permission to do so, burning your Christmas tree actually reduces the equivalent carbon^ footprint by 80% as well (^remember it is methane that is actually released) in comparison to letting it rot. Reason being burning the tree simply releases the carbon stored when it is growing so there is no net increase. A final option is to have it chipped locally and spread over your garden😊.
