CIOB offsetting Member’s Forum emissions

Later this month, delegates from CIOB’s Local Hub Committees around the world will travel to Cape Town, South Africa, for the five-day Member’s Forum, where they will meet with the CIOB Board of Trustees and Officers, the CIOB Leadership Team and key members of staff. 

As an international organisation, it is important to engage with CIOB members and stakeholders around the world. Advancements in technology mean some meetings and conferences can now be held virtually, but face-to-face meetings and in-person site visits remain integral to our work. However, this inevitability comes with an environmental impact. 

With environmental sustainability one of the key themes of our Corporate Plan 2023-28, CIOB is committed to reducing its environmental impact where possible. 

To begin measuring this impact, CIOB has for the first time reviewed the carbon footprint of holding the Member’s Forum, which found that the event would produce 389.1 tonne of CO₂ this year. This includes:

• international flights: 369.6t
• accommodation: 15.2t
• catering: 4.2t
• materials: 0.133t

We were unable to include energy use at the venue or waste generated in these calculations, which are areas for future improvement. 

Offsetting emissions 

As well as keeping these emissions as low as possible by only sending essential events staff in person, CIOB has also offset the remaining emissions by purchasing carbon credits through the United Nations Carbon offset platform. Offsetting is a climate action that enables individuals and organisations to compensate for the emissions they cannot avoid, by supporting worthy projects that reduce emissions somewhere else.

Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduced through offsetting are measured in UN Certified Emission Reductions (CERs), generated from Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects. These projects, which are located in developing countries, earn 1 CER for each metric tonne of GHG emissions they reduce or avoid and are measured in CO₂ equivalents (CO₂-eq).

As we are hosting the event in South Africa, we have chosen to support a scheme on the continent of Africa with the purchase of 370 CERs to support the Biomass Energy Conservation Programme in Malawi.

Biomass Energy Conservation Programme 

The programme allows families to switch from a traditional three-stone fire to a Chitetezo Mbaula stove, reducing the volume of particles emitted by 46% and carbon monoxide by 44%. The stove can also reduce firewood consumption by up to 80%, a major advancement in a country that suffered 57% deforestation between 1972 and 1992. Using a Chitetezo Mbaula stove also reduces each family’s annual CO₂-eq emissions by about two tonnes.

The Chitetezo Mbaula stove is hand-made using local materials, fostering local ingenuity and self-reliance. The stove project provides income to more than 2000 people, mostly women in rural areas, who manufacture and promote the smoke reducing cookstoves. These businesses are established and grown on a for-profit basis and projects are growing rapidly. Expansion funding comes from CO2 credit sales to buyers from wealthy countries who offset their emissions.

This programme supports a number of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, including goal 3 Healthy lives and wellbeing, Goal 5 Achieve gender equality and empower women, and goal 13 Climate Action.