Vita & Dublin City Council – a carbon offset partnership

9th October 2018

Dublin City Council & Vita unite to offset carbon

Vita are delighted to announce that they are partnering with Dublin City Council to offset the carbon footprint for all of the Council’s international travel in 2017.

The move, a first for an Irish local government administration, is a bold and exemplary leadership initiative, demonstrating the council’s strong stance on environmental issues and bolstering it’s climate credentials.

Carbon offsetting is when a tonne of carbon that is created by burning fossil fuels , for example by flying in a plane,  is counterbalanced by the reduction of an equivalent amount of carbon from somewhere else, for example by someone using new technology or new habits to reduce their normal carbon footprint.

Offsetting is an excellent way to raise awareness of and take responsibility for people’s and organisation’s carbon footprints, and the Vita carbon offsets are from East Africa, where the programmes that they are created from transform the lives of some of the world’s poorest families.

For example, the vast majority of cooking in East Africa is done over an open fire in the family home. This is not only very unhealthy for women and their families in terms of toxic fumes, but it is also a huge burden on these women to gather sticks to keep the fire going.

Vita has a very successful programme rolling out safer, enclosed, fuel efficient stoves which are 60% more efficient. This means that apart from the obvious health benefits, there is a significant reduction in wood burned, and therefore less carbon generated, which equates to more carbon credits. By using these carbon credits, Dublin City Council is having a tremendously positive impact on these communities while also supporting carbon reduction schemes.

“This is a brave and strident act by Dublin City Council,” says John Weakliam, CEO of Vita. “Recognising that your actions have a global impact, and then acting in a global way to address the harm from those actions demonstrates the unique courage and broad vision of DCC.”