Chesterfield-based Bridge Help has started 2022 as a carbon neutral organisation, offsetting the entire carbon footprint of its workforce – from their flights and car journeys to lunches and energy usage both at work and home.
In just two months the commercial bridging finance company has directly funded the planting of 508 trees across Madagascar, Kenya, Uganda and Mozambique as well as achieving a reduction in 34.44 tonnes of CO2.
Becoming carbon neutral has been made possible by Ecologi – an organisation which helps companies and individuals fund impactful climate solutions, plant trees, analyse carbon footprint, become climate positive, achieve carbon neutrality and more.
Every member of the Bridge Help team has been registered with Ecologi and carbon credits aligned according to their lifestyle. By signing up to Ecologi, the Bridge Help team is directly funding high-impact climate solutions and supporting the town’s ambition to become a carbon neutral borough by 2050.
Companies and organisations that have signed up to Ecologi have, together, funded the planting of 31,450,527 trees reducing 1,239,380 tonnes of CO2 to date in a drive to bring greenhouse gas emissions in the UK to net zero by 2050.
Chris Sellars, Chief Executive of Bridge Help, said: “Prior to signing up to Ecologi, we made small steps in becoming a carbon neutral business however this has now been accelerated. What myself and the team particularly like about Ecologi, is that we are all offsetting our personal carbon output 24/7 whether we are working or not. It is something the whole team is passionate about and we’ll be taking further steps throughout 2022 and beyond to reduce our impact on the environment.”
Despite the economic slowdown due to the pandemic, the highest ever atmospheric CO2 concentration (419 parts per million) was recorded in June 2021. With seven of the warmest years on record all occurring since 2014, the issue of climate change is increasingly pressing.
