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: 

  1. Laptops - 0.022 tonnes of carbon 

  2. Site lighting - 0.039 tonnes of carbon 

  3. Delivery from suppliers - 0.069 tonnes of carbon 

  4. Daily transport for trees - 1.6 tonnes of carbon 

  5. Netting - 0.120 tonnes of carbon 

  6. Carbon sequestered by trees - *Offset, so minus 0.057 tonnes of carbon 

  7. Customer return journey to us - 3 tonnes of carbon 

  8. Customer return journey to the skip - 2 tonnes of carbon 

  9. Methane created by tree if not burned/chipped - 16 tonnes of carbon 

Total: 22.793 tonnes of Carbon 

With Forest Carbon 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 ‘More Info’ below.

MORE INFO

Our (Green Christmas Tree’s) carbon footprint:

  1. 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)

  2. 2 sets of Festoon lights plus 2 sets of Christmas lights at each site, all running for 12 hours a day for 18 days over 3 sites: 39kg of Carbon (15g per hour per set of lights roughly).

  3. Trucks delivering trees from our supplier, distance to supplier 19km, we have 2 deliveries so a total of 76km of travel in a 17.5 tonne lorry: 69.2Kg of Carbon (910g of carbon per km)

  4. 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 42.3km. We multiply this by 6 journeys per day in total for the 3 vans. Then multiply by 18 days of trading totals 4569km of travel. Total 1.6 tonnes of Carbon (350g of carbon per km for a large long wheel base van).

  5. Netting, most plastic (98%) is made directly form fossil fuels, the netting we use weighs in at around 20kg in total, to produce this amount of plastic produces 120kg of carbon (per kg of plastic produced 6kg of carbon produced)

  6. Self-offsetting, 1 acre of Christmas trees sequesters 1 tonne of CO2 over 10 years. This is using an estimate of 5ft spacing from trunk to trunk so 1742 trees per acre. As we sell 1000 trees, we will use up 57% of an acre. So 570kg per 10 years (the growth cycle of a Christmas tree) so we self-offset 57kg of carbon a year by purchasing 1000 Christmas trees.

  7. Your journey to visit us and choose your Christmas tree, we are estimating that the site is for the average person 12km away. So that is a 24km round trip, with 1000 trees that is a total of 24000km. Total is 3 tonnes of carbon rounded up from 2.928 (average car creates 122 grams of carbon per kilometre)

  8. Your dump run; we are estimating that the dump is for the average person 8km away. So a 16km round trip, 1000 X 16=16000km. Total is 2 tonnes of carbon rounded up from 1.952 (average car creates 122 grams of carbon per kilometre)

  9. When a tree is decomposing it creates methane which has 25 times more effect than carbon in terms of warming the planet. 1000 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 16 tonnes of CO2 (per tree equivalent of 16kg of carbon per tree or 640g of methane)

Total: 22.793 tonnes of Carbon

OF THE 23 TONNES 92% IS FROM THE LAST THREE ON THE LIST. 

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 dump! 

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? Click ‘more info’.

MORE INFO

What you can do to help with disposing of your tree

As you can see above, disposing of your tree at the dump has a huge environmental impact due to the decomposing tree releasing methane. We would like to offer some tips to help with disposing of your tree in a sustainable manner.

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% (^remember it is methane that is actually released) in comparison to taking it to the dump. Reason being burning the tree simply releases the carbon stored when it is growing so there is no net increase. Furthermore, you save time, money, and more carbon from being released by not going to the dump and burning fuel to do so. Good news is it’s been accounted for by us anyway, so if burning your tree isn’t an option don’t worry. Another option is to have it chipped and spread over your garden, the same stats apply for this method.