An increasing amount of people are working from home, particularly due to the ongoing global health crisis, which has caused a record decline in carbon emission. However, working from home still has environmental impacts. For example, an hour of a video conference call is estimated to emit between 150g and 1kg of CO2 into the atmosphere, according to a recent Purdue University study.
Thankfully, some companies are looking to change that, including a partnership between Norwegian video conferencing app Whereby and environmental start-up Brynk. The duo will offset users’ carbon footprint of remote working with a tree-planting initiative. Both companies are committed to bringing together a community of people and organizations to help fight the climate crisis.
In February, they exceeded their target in planting over one million trees (one for every three video calls). This is the foundation of what will become Whereby’s ‘Impact Forest,’ planted across protected sites in Madagascar, Kenya, and Mozambique. Overall, the impact forest will cover an area of around 137 football fields, which will absorb roughly 410,000 tons of carbon – comparable to taking 5,700 cars off the road.
The Global Carbon Project has estimated that carbon emissions worldwide reduced by 7% in 2020 compared to the previous year (around 2.4 tons of CO2) due to pandemic-related lockdowns. It signifies the biggest drop in fossil emissions since the end of World War II.
This is a major milestone. However, it’s still not sufficient enough to avoid the worst effects of the climate crisis. Regardless, several companies are seeing this as an opportunity to cut emissions in the long-run.
Ryan Bonnici, Whereby’s CMO, explained:
The partnership with Brynk allows us to contribute to the restoration and rebalancing of the environment whilst also raising awareness and engaging our employees and customers in the critical mission to fight the climate crisis.
Brynk and Whereby’s goal of planting one million trees is just the beginning of their initiative, and they hope that others will follow for a better future.
Luke Evans, the founder of Brynk, said:
We hope that others will follow in the footsteps of Whereby’s decision and example to fully commit to becoming carbon neutral and to making a difference to our planet for the future.
Ecosia search engine uses a similar concept; it turns the internet into an eco-friendly activity by donating 80% of its earnings via advertisement clicks to tree-planting projects worldwide. As of 2019, the sum of their donations evened out to $3.1 million over seven years.
