From the very beginning, IT Schools Africa has always put recycling at the heart of what it does. Our environmental impact is important to us and we want to play our part in tackling climate change and embracing the low carbon economy. Each year we will report on our activities in Africa and the UK, as we work towards our ambitious plan to reduce our emissions over the next 8 years.
We started the process in 2019 with local consultant, Go Climate Positive, where we analysed what we do and how we do it. We identified where our significant carbon emissions came from and wrote an action plan to reduce and offset those emissions in line with the latest science and best practice.
Our 2019 report was used as a baseline report for this year’s and future reports.
Our report for the year (ending May 2022), calculated both our carbonfootprint and our carbon handprint. Our carbon footprint represents the current impact of the charity on global warming and climate change. Our carbon handprint is the total carbon savings that we have helped someone else to make, beyond the reductions we have made in our own emissions.
In the year ending May 2022 our carbon footprint was 281 tonnes, a reduction of 111 tonnes of carbon compared with 2019.
In 2019 our carbon handprint ( the amount of carbon we helped others to save ) was 61 tonnes. By 2022 we had increased this saving to 126 tonnes of carbon.
Targets
To reduce our emissions from our activities by at least 46% from our baseline of 2019, by 2030
To reduce the emissions from the use of the equipment we supply. To set a science-based target we would need to achieve at least a 28% reduction. However, we have already achieved this between 2019 and 2022, so we plan to do a feasibility study to understand what is achievable.