B Corporations ClimateCare and Carbon Analytics have pooled their expertise to develop a new Carbon Calculator.

The online calculator is powered by measurement experts Carbon Analytics and provides users with a tool to calculate their carbon emissions. Users can then immediately offset these carbon emissions through ClimateCare’s award winning portfolio of climate and sustainable development projects. 

The calculator helps you measure the impact of specific activities like travel, attending an event or energy use.  For example, the image below shows a calculation of the carbon impact of a return economy flight from London Heathrow to New York – a distance of over 6800 miles. It shows that each passenger is responsible for 1.54 tonnes of CO2 emissions, and gives the opportunity to offset this for £11.53.

After purchase users receive an email confirmation which includes a certificate detailing the amount of carbon offset, information about the projects they have supported and guidance on how to reduce their carbon footprint further. There’s even the option opportunity to purchase offsets as a gift.

Everyone who measures and offsets emissions through the calculator will support projects that both cut global carbon emissions and make a real difference to people’s lives, including the award winning LifeStraw Carbon for Water project – that provides safe drinking water to 4 million people in Western Kenya - and the Gyapa Project, which provides clean efficient cookstoves to families in Ghana.

“Every organisation and every household has a climate impact. Most of us are aware of the issue, but while calculating your exact carbon footprint and taking steps to address it can seem complicated, it doesn’t have to be” explains ClimateCare’s Head of Corporate Partnerships, Rob Stevens.

“With our Carbon Calculator we want to help people take action. We hope that our simple, positive process will help everyone understand and take responsibility for their carbon emissions – both by identifying opportunities to reduce their footprint and offsetting what remains.“ But it doesn’t stop there. For organisations further along their carbon management journey, there is the opportunity to use the business tab to delve into the detail and carry out in depth measurements of business, supply chain and product impacts. And, once people are engaged, ClimateCare and Carbon Analytics are committed to supporting them on a journey towards carbon neutrality – or even beyond, to become carbon positive.

“Most people and businesses want to reduce their direct energy emissions (what we call Scope 1 emissions) but they often underestimate their indirect emissions, which include the source of their electricity and transportation (Scopes 2 and 3 emissions). The good news is that there are ways to see, understand and reduce all your energy consumption and emissions,” says Michael Thornton, co-founder and CEO of Carbon Analytics. 

See the ClimateCare Calculator here.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced today the launch of a first-of-its-kind initiative developed among the six largest communications businesses globally in support of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). 

UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon announcing the Common ground Initiative. Photo Credit: United Nations

“Today, the communications industry is taking a historic, first-of-its-kind step to beat poverty, injustice and inequality,” said the Secretary-General, speaking at the Lions Festival of Creativity, Cannes. “The six biggest communications businesses in the world have risen to what some may have said was an impossible test: they have agreed to put their differences aside in support of a joint unique and exciting initiative to advance the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the SDGs.”

The Secretary-General emphasized that success required a serious, 15-year partnership for humanity. He called the new initiative both an example and a challenge to all of us to find our own common ground for the common good.

Ban Ki-moon with five of the six firm leaders at the Lions Festival of Creativity, in Cannes. Photo Credit:

Common Ground was developed by leading advertising companies, including Dentsu, Havas, IPG, Omnicom, Publicis Groupe and WPP.

In a joint statement, Tadashi Ishii, Chief Executive Officer and President of Dentsu; Yannick Bolloré, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Havas; Michael Roth, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of IPG; John Wren, President and Chief Executive Officer of Omnicom; Maurice Lévy, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Publicis Groupe; and Sir Martin Sorrell, founder and Chief Executive Officer of WPP, said:

“The Common Ground initiative recognises that the global issues the UN has identified transcend commercial rivalry. By working in partnership to support the Sustainable Development Goals, we want to demonstrate that even fierce competitors can set aside their differences in order to serve a wider common interest. We hope others in and beyond our own business decide to do the same.”

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon meets with winners of the Cannes Young Lions competition in France. Photo Credit: Eskinder Debebe

“The timing is right for this type of innovation,” elaborated the Secretary-General. “We are in the first year of implementing a 15-year plan. Getting it on track at the beginning is critical to achieving our goals at the end. The communications industry is famous for its creativity and energy. The United Nations fully supports channelling this dynamism towards answering the greatest challenges facing our planet and humanity.” 

The sustainable development agenda, unanimously adopted by world leaders in September 2015, is the most ambitious anti-poverty, pro-planet agenda ever agreed, with the SDGs anchored at its centre. The agenda clearly defines the world we want – applying to all nations and leaving no one behind. 

How does the Common Ground work?

The new collaboration will start immediately, with two immediate objectives:

• to come together to help to address the Sustainable Development Goals and
• to encourage other industries to follow suit and find their own common ground.

Kick-starting the Common Ground programme will be a global advertising campaign, with space donated by key business and thought-leadership publications.

In addition, the six companies have agreed to provide a development fund for each of the winning ideas in the Cannes Young Lions competition, which this year was devoted solely to the SDGs. These funds, a first for the Young Lions Contest, will be used to develop the winning concepts and provide them the strongest possible chance of being put into practice. 

You may find more information here.

6,273 km and 71 hours later, Bertrand Piccard lands in Sevilla, Spain. Piccard has been flying from New York City in a solar aircraft, completely emission-free, without the use of a single drop of fuel. This pioneering initiative is the 15th leg of the Round-the-World Solar Flight attempt by Solar Impulse, who want to "demonstrate that clean technologies can achieve impossible goals".

After crossing the Pacific and the Atlantic, this accomplishment means that 90% of the around-the-world flight mission has been completed by Piccard and his partner, André Borschberg.

Bertrand Piccard celebrates at Sevilla airport after a 70-hour journey from New York. Photo Credit: Solar Impulse

“This flight symbolized the step from the old world to the new world; our future is clean and it starts now,” emphasized Bertrand Piccard stepping out of the cockpit.

With a cruising speed of around 43 miles per hour, similar to an average car, Solar Impulse 2 has more than 17,000 solar cells built into wings with a span bigger than that of a Boeing 747. The two environmental adventurers predict to finish the Round-the-World Solar Flight with three more flights, concluding the trip in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

Solar Impulse has landed in Spain. Photo Credit: Solar Impulse

"Success will be measured by the number of kilometers we've accomplished, but most of all by the number of people we will have inspired to follow their dreams and make the world a better place", they say.

Their flight ahs already covered 15 cities, almost 36,000 km and zero carbon emissions.

Sustainia launches the 2016 Sustainia100 publication. This year’s edition contains 100 solutions from all over the world that provide social, financial and environmental returns, whilst also addressing the Sustainable Development Goals. We believe these 100 solutions can help us build the world of tomorrow.

This is the fifth year of the Sustainia100. More than ever before, our research confirms that there are countless companies and organizations using new mindsets and innovative thinking to deliver on everything from good health and affordable and clean energy, to improved infrastructure and sustainable urban development.

What’s different this time around?

• More people than ever before are aware of the case for sustainability, thanks to the unifying call of the Sustainable Development Goals. A sustainable future feels inclusive, desirable and possible – if we meet the global goals, and leave no one behind. The Sustainia100 maps each of the solutions against the global goals, to show where the opportunities sit.
• More people than ever before are acting on sustainability, thanks to the leadership behind the UNFCCC. At the end of 2015, 195 countries adopted the first-ever universal, legally binding global climate deal. The Sustainia100 reveals where in the world people are acting on sustainability, as global markets become primed for investment and innovation.

The Sustainia100 provides an accessible format to explore the solutions – just like a sustainable future, there is something for everyone.

Make the Sustainia100 your first stop for sustainable action, and help us build the world of tomorrow – starting today. Head to www.sustainia.me to find out more. 

You can read and download the complete Press Release here.