The Premier Paper Group has extended its Carbon Capture programme. The group, which originally offered the scheme to customers to capture CO2 emissions from the production and distribution involved in their paper purchases (which was then calculated and captured by planting trees with the Woodland Trust’s Woodland Carbon Scheme) has now been extended to organisations and companies that wish to Carbon Capture all the CO2 emissions related to their operational activities. The first to take up the offer is Purely Digital.
Specialising in short-run digital printing, Purely Digital became Premier’s first Carbon Capture Certified Company having already been part of its Carbon Capture paper purchase offset programme since 2013,
where it has been responsible for creating 92.09 m² of new native woodland in the UK through the Woodland Trust’s Woodland Carbon scheme.
Commenting on its reasons for opting to become the first Certified Carbon Capture Company, Purely Digital’s MD Andrew Edmondson said: “When we started the business we wanted to try and be as green as we could. We became FSC certified and looked to combat the rise of CO2 emissions that we, as a company produced through our plant. We offset our company’s electricity supply for the past seven years by various schemes with the electricity companies, but I found that often these were offsetting the carbon overseas, which was not favourable to me. By contributing to the Woodland Carbon Scheme with the Woodland Trust, and through their partnership with Premier Paper, this made me think this would be a far, far, better way to capture back the CO2 we as a company produce, by not allowing it to be someone else’s problem overseas, but to capture the carbon in a scheme operating here in the UK that we can see tangible benefits from, and help develop further the UK forest coverage.”
Edmondson added: “I believe we have a low percentage of land covered by trees compared to our European neighbours and we should do whatever we can to rectify that. Also by doing this we are contributing in a small way to the welfare of our children and their children by means of slowing down global warming and creating leisure areas for families to enjoy and benefit from for many years to come.”
Carbon Capture is offered through the Woodland Trust, and Premier, as a corporate partner, is signed up to its UK Woodland Carbon Code. This programme sets a new standard for Carbon Capture, removing it from the atmosphere through the creation of native woodland across the country.
The scheme operates under the Government’s Woodland Carbon programme, an accredited carbon removal scheme that operates under the Government’s 2011 Woodland Carbon Code.
To become a Certified Carbon Capture Company, customers, together with the use of Carbon Capture paper, calculate their operational CO2 emissions from their energy and fuel consumptions using DEFRA figures and guidelines. The calculated figures are submitted for independent audit and verification. Upon verification, the company can then Carbon Capture its operational CO2 together with its paper purchases to become a Certified Carbon Capture Company. The certified status is for a two-year period, after which the operational CO2 emissions will then be audited and re-verified.
