What is a Carbon Footprint?
Why Conduct a Carbon Footprint Assessment?
At Act! with Surfrider, our commitment to the environment drives us to continuously evaluate and reduce our ecological footprint. Conducting a Carbon Footprint Assessment allows us to:
- Identify the main sources of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions linked to our activities.
- Guide our emission reduction strategies in a targeted and effective way.
- Align our actions with the environmental values we stand for, ensuring consistency with our mission.
What is a Carbon Footprint?
A Carbon Footprint Assessment is a diagnostic tool that quantifies an organization's climate impact by evaluating all its GHG emissions over a given period. It provides a comprehensive view of both direct and indirect emissions, following the standards set by the Bilan Carbone Association (ABC) and the GHG Protocol.
Our Approach with Carbo
To carry out this analysis, we partnered with Carbo, a company specializing in carbon footprint measurement and monitoring. Their expertise and dedicated platform enabled us to collect and analyze our data with precision.
Our 2024 Carbon Footprint
Methodology Used
Following the Bilan Carbone® methodology developed by ADEME, we:
- Collected precise data on our activities, including energy consumption, material purchases, and business travel.
- Engaged our employees through surveys detailing their transportation and dietary habits.
- Analyzed this information using the Carbo platform, converting data into CO₂ equivalents for a clear understanding of our impact.
Results
In 2024, Act! with Surfrider generated 25 tons of CO₂e, equivalent to 3.15 tons of CO₂e per employee, matching the annual carbon footprint of two average French citizens.
The distribution of our emissions is as follows:
- Offices/Sites: 4.53 tCO₂e
- Travel: 4.12 tCO₂e
- Purchases & Services: 1.92 tCO₂e
- Operations: 0.46 tCO₂e
- Digital Products: 0.11 tCO₂e
- Other: 14 tCO₂e
Detailed Emission Breakdown
- Offices/Sites (4.53 tCO₂e): includes energy consumption at our Biarritz and Paris offices, shared with Surfrider Foundation. We allocated 10% of total consumption to Act! with Surfrider, proportional to our workforce. Our electricity comes from renewable sources (Enercoop).
- Travel (4.12 tCO₂e):
- Daily commuting: 2.8 tCO₂e for employee home-work trips.
- Train travel: 1.3 tCO₂e for 230 trips.
- Other transport modes: car, truck, taxi.
- No flights were taken in 2024, in line with our zero-flight policy.
- Purchases & Services (1.92 tCO₂e):
- Office supplies: 1.9 tCO₂e, including materials for our activities (DIY workshops, waste collection equipment, etc.).
- Electronic equipment: 0.2 tCO₂e (no major electronics purchases in 2024).
- We prioritize eco-friendly supplies and minimize plastic use.
- Operations (0.46 tCO₂e):
- SaaS software: CRM tools, project management, etc.
- External communications: Emails, social media.
- Digital Products (0.11 tCO₂e): mainly linked to website hosting. Our website, designed by 83°Nord, is eco-friendly, and hosted in a data center near Grenoble running on 100% renewable hydroelectric energy (carbon footprint: 6 gCO₂eq per kWh).
- Other (14 tCO₂e): includes expenses for meals and accommodations for our facilitators during activities, canoe-kayak clubs for waste collections, and internal events (training, team building).
See the full 2024 Carbon Footprint report here.
Comparison with Previous Years
After conducting our carbon footprint assessments in 2022 and 2023, we implemented concrete measures this year:
- Strengthening our travel policy (promoting taxis/electric vehicles, encouraging vegetarian meals for facilitators, etc.).
- Establishing a sustainable purchasing policy, prioritizing second-hand and refurbished equipment.
Compared to 2023 (see our 2023 Carbon Footprint report), when we emitted 23 tons of CO₂e, we observed a slight increase. This rise is also reflected in the carbon footprint per employee, which increased by 11%.
This variation is due to more exhaustive data collection, incorporating additional services such as training courses, printed materials (for educational content), and canoe-kayak rentals for waste collection events. Some emissions genuinely increased, such as those from our website, which saw more visitors.
Others decreased, such as:
- Purchases (from 7.2 tons in 2023 to 1.9 tons in 2024).
- Business travel (from 2.8 tCO₂e in 2023 to 1.62 tCO₂e in 2024), thanks to fewer car/truck kilometers.
Outlook for 2025
The largest contributor to our carbon footprint comes from:
- Meals and accommodations for facilitators during activities.
- Various service providers (canoe-kayak clubs, laundries, etc.).
- We aim to implement reduction strategies focused on these key areas.
For 2025, we will further refine our methodology to include participant travel in our footprint assessment. To do so, we will introduce two new questions in our post-activity survey:
- Distance traveled to the activity.
- Mode of transport used.
- This will provide a more accurate picture of our overall environmental impact.
