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WSP Environment & Energy plans to roll the scheme out to its worldwide offices next year, says director
David Symons (above, left); the PACT poster (above, right)
also relies on staff being motivated to read but we’ve received £150,000 of advertising
A GOOD IDEA?
their energy meters and to track their value equivalent coverage in the first half of
journeys. This works well for voluntary the year from PACT. Companies are increas-
THE CONCEPT OF PERSONAL
programmes and in an organisation whose ingly coming under scrutiny for their environ-
CARBON TRADING HAS BEEN DOING
values are those of trust, sharing, support and mental and sustainability commitments, and
THE ROUNDS FOR A WHILE NOW
sustainability. It would be harder to imple- along with this, employees are more demand-
ment a mandatory scheme on a wider scale. ing than ever. PACT offers staff the chance to
Proposals for introducing personal Other personal carbon trials have conclud- be a part of the company environmental poli-
quotas for carbon have been bandied ed that a mandatory scheme needs to be cy. As a relatively new WSP recruit, Julian
around before. Tradable Energy Quotas automated – through the use of credit cards to Elsworth notes that “it was things like PACT
(TEQs), devised by environmental capture carbon in purchases, for example. that made me want to work for a company like
journalist and writer, David Fleming, were However, the challenge is that the cost of WSP. They actually practice what they preach
thrown up back in 1996. setting these up outweighs the benefit. This and care about sustainability issues”.
But the concept can be traced back was Defra’s conclusion when it reviewed per- And the cost saving potential of PACT
even further than that. Tradable Personal sonal carbon trading in 2007. It argued that it makes it all the more attractive. Whether a
Pollution Allowances were originally was cheaper to achieve broadly similar carbon member of a scheme like PACT or not, people
proposed in an article by Dr. Kirk Barrett savings by product regulation and green taxes. are increasingly concerned about their carbon
in 1995, applicable to any form of But voluntary schemes still have much to footprints. But changing behaviour is slow,
pollution, including carbon dioxide. offer. RSA ran a community personal carbon unless you have a measuring tool like PACT
Personal Carbon Allowances were also trading in the UK up until the end of 2008. It to put a price tag on the difference. Neil Shaw,
described in the book, How We Can concluded that while mandatory schemes another WSP member, says: “PACT puts a
Save the Planet by Mayer Hillman and were likely to be prohibitively expensive to pound sign on your carbon emissions – which
Tina Fawcett. make them watertight, voluntary, personal definitely helps to raise awareness.”
schemes had much more potential and should Before the scheme staff were willing to
Research be explored further. make changes to their lifestyles, but even more
And ideas have been backed up by willing when cost-saving opportunities
research. The UK’s Tyndall Centre for Expansion appeared on their PACT results. WSP is the
Climate Change Research has been Expanding the scheme further is just what we first business in the world to implement a per-
looking into the feasibility of personal are planning to do in 2010. Next year we’ll be sonal carbon trading scheme, so we are rightly
trading schemes since 2003. More rolling the scheme out to our worldwide proud of it. It’s great for our staff, changes
recently, the Royal Society for the offices. We’ll also be wrapping in the embed- behaviour, and shows how the environmental
encouragement of Arts, Manufactures & ded carbon in products and making our data sector can take leadership in helping develop
Commerce (RSA) studied the concept in collection tool more intuitive. and test potential sustainability solutions.
more detail – and even ran a pilot The company is doing this for the benefit of
project with interested parties – through staff, but there’s also a business edge to it. David Symons is a director of WSP
its government-funded RSA Some competitors might think that having a Environment & Energy, a global consultancy
CarbonLimited scheme. personal carbon trading scheme for staff is a firm specialising in climate change,
luxury that can be ill afforded in a downturn, sustainability, environmental and energy issues
Sustainable Business ❘ October 2009 27
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