We calculated our CO₂ emissions for the period between 1 April 2008-30 March 2009 using the NZBCSD calculator and the following data:

• Taxi usage and rental cars (from our credit card bills).
• Air travel - from our Air NZ Travelcard account.  We also included flights that were booked for us by our clients.
• Electricity use.
• Wast to landfill - estimate of weekly waste calculated by our cleaners.

Our total CO₂ emissions for the period was 26.042 tonnes.

What's not been included?

1. Commuter travel for our people going to and from work.  Our most common methods of travel are public transport, cycling and walking.  Wellington makes this easy for us.
2. Emissions associated with clients coming to visit us at our offices.

How do we rate compared with other companies or organisations like us?

Comparative data is not easy to come by for companies like ours.  SBN (Sustainable Business Network) have advised us of their total emissions for a 12-month period which work out to be about 28% less than ours for a 6 month period.  We have yet to ascertain where the differences lie.

How we will offset our emissions

We have investigated planting trees in the green belt in Wellington (since that's where we're based), donating to Project Crimson for the Rata planting in the Tinakori Hills, joining CarboNZero or Greenfleet, or buying credits through the likes of the Chicago Exchange.

Based on the current acceptable value of $30 per tonne - we have decided to donate $781.25 to the Air New Zealand Environment Trust due to the majority of our CO₂ emissions stemming from air travel.

We plan to continue to report on a six-monthly basis.