Planting for our future

Trees for Change is our ambitious project to offset the greenhouse gas emissions from our manufacturing operations from 2006 to 2014 through planting trees.

Why is it important to us?

Over their lives, trees take in carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. By converting land used, or previously cleared, for cultivation back to forest, we help to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere that would otherwise have remained there contributing to global warming.

Through Trees for Change, we will plant enough trees to take in the same amount of carbon dioxide as our manufacturing operations will generate from 2006 to 2014, effectively making our manufacturing operations carbon neutral over this period.

What do we mean by ‘carbon neutral’?

To make our manufacturing operations ‘carbon neutral’ we measure the carbon emissions from the energy consumed at our manufacturing facilities, take action to minimise these emissions and then offset the remaining, unavoidable, emissions.

Measure & minimise
Each year we report on the total greenhouse gas emissions from our manufacturing activities in our Sustainability Report. We have a challenging carbon reduction target – to reduce our total carbon footprint by 1/3 – and are implementing a wide range of emissions reduction initiatives at our manufacturing facilities to help us achieve this, such as installing on-site renewable energy technologies and rolling out energy efficiency projects. Further details on these can be found in our Sustainability Report

Offset
For the remaining unavoidable emissions, we are planting trees that, over 100+ years, will take in the same amount of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as our manufacturing operations produce each year (from 2006 to 2014). We are only planting on land that has been used, or cleared for use, for cultivation and are committed to ensuring our trees remain in situ for 100 years.

Our methodology for estimating the carbon that will be sequestered by the trees planted in our Trees for Change Programme is aligned to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) Good Practice Guidance (GPG) for Land Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF) Projects (2003). Our methodology (as at December 2012), used for estimating the carbon sequestered by trees planted between 2006 and 2010*, and its alignment with the IPCC GPG for LULUCF Projects have been subject to independent assurance. Further details can be found here.

* Note: Trees planted since 2010 are subject to an interim simplified estimation method, which will be updated to the method described above once the current planting cycle is complete (i.e. in 2013/14).

Did you know...

• RB reduced its manufacturing CO2e emissions by 48% between 2000 and 2011
• We also measure and work to reduce the emissions associated with our full product life cycle – from product design through to final disposal.
• RB reduced its products' average lifecycle carbon footprint by 21% (between 2007 and 2011)
• Planting trees will not only lock in carbon but it will also help the environment by enhancing local biodiversity and water quality
• Deforestation accounts for approximately 20% of global greenhouse gas emissions*
• Each year, we lose around 130,000km2 of forest across the globe - an area the size of England*

*Source: WWF