Did you know the average daily carbon footprint of every Australian is a whopping 55kg of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e)? If each of us took responsibility for 55kg of CO2e emissions each day, this would account for all of Australia’s reported emissions. We got this, Sydney!
TEDxSydney set our sights on creating our Main Event as close to carbon neutral as possible in 2022. When we say ‘we’ we mean with our wonderful anti-pollution partner, C2Zero and our venue partner City of Sydney, who already making significant impact with initiatives including renewable electricity, rooftop solar and a recycling program with venues such as the Sydney Town Hall.
Of the 55kg being produced by every Aussie, 21kg represents a baseline of our daily household emissions. By partnering with C2Zero, we were able to offset 21kg for each attendee at TEDxSydney 2022. Which resulted in a total, a massive 31.5tonnes of emissions compensated for.
But that is not all. By the generous actions of the attendees and volunteers on the day, an additional 7.5 tonnes increased the total to almost 39 tonnes – the weight of about 5.7 elephants, 2.4 Greyhound buses or the food consumed by 68 average Australians over one year.
How was this done? Working with C2Zero, emissions allowances are locked away to cover the total amount of carbon offset. Emissions allowances are like permissions slips big polluters need to pollute. Unlike planting trees the impact of removing emissions allowances from polluters is immediate, transparent and measurable. Each allowance locked away is one tonne of emissions that will never be used to pollute. The locked away allowances are split into unique serialised tokens which can be allocated to anything.
For TEDxSydney, each t-shirt worn by volunteers locked away 10kg of CO2e, the tote bags given to attendees 21kg and optional top-ups locking away 34kg and more were available. All of this can be tracked and traced ensuring real and lasting impact.
If you’d like to learn more, visit c2zero.net, or watch this short video (here).
