- This year the World Environment Day theme- ‘Only One Earth’, focuses on living sustainably in harmony with nature, and necessitates the need for transformative changes through policies and individual choices
- ‘A shift in consumer behaviour vis a vis carbon accounting is a must to achieve Net Zero emission and one must start with capturing and offsetting the carbon footprint that we add to the environment’: WOCE
As sustainability is becoming increasingly important, WOCE, an India-based climate-friendly start-up has announced the launch of its platform, which will allow organisations to enable its workforce to capture, calculate and earn rewards to offset carbon footprint, ahead of the World Environment Day 2022.
“Organisations are committing to ambitious net-zero targets but there is a dearth of industry-focused solutions, which could help accelerate the Government’s mission journey to net-zero by 2070 and that is the gap, we aim to fulfil”, said Anup Garg, Founder and Director at WOCE (World of Circular Economy).
At the CoP26, India announced that it would reduce its carbon emissions by one billion tonnes from now onwards till 2030. Additionally, the government will take steps to reduce the nation’s carbon intensity by 45 percent by 2030. Only with serious and concerted efforts of the corporate, this dream could be realised.
WOCE strongly believes in the philosophy of “What cannot be measured, cannot be managed”. It integrates corporates, employees, carbon offset green projects, sustainable marketplace vendors on one single platform to measure and manage an individual’s/organisation’s carbon footprint.
“Our product will be available in the market in the next eight weeks’ time. It targets organisations, which feel integral to the environment and commit themselves to net-zero carbon emission. The objective is to build a sustainable ecosystem and instill changes in people’s lifestyle, which promotes green living. Corporates have a bigger role to play to accelerate the journey towards net zero”, said Garg.
Besides, the idea behind WOCE is to lead one business organisation to inspire others towards building a sustainable ecosystem. This process starts with the employees; they are made aware of the gravity of the environment situation and then, take responsibility for the carbon emissions.
According to a 2020 study by three of the University of British Columbia researchers, consumers struggle to understand what actions have the greatest impact toward reducing their carbon footprint.
According to Garg, “The app that WOCE is launching, will help organisations to illuminate the concept of capturing carbon footprint in the simplest way that can otherwise be difficult for people to grasp. This has been made possible by two years of rigorous research which takes 50+ parameters into account, which vary by different geographies while computing emissions.” The aim is to shift the behaviour of people by taking responsibility for their action, which is causing harm to the ecosystem while capturing it and calculating. It’s a process to change the mindset and bring consciousness that sustainability is not an option, but will be a way of life we all lead!
Garg said, “On App download, every employee can keep a check on his/her emissions via travels (air, rail, bus, car, bike), eats or energy (gas, power) usages/ consumption, waste disposal, etc. on a daily basis. This way, the company can account for all its employees and measure, reduce and neutralize emissions and report its carbon footprint.” Also, this will differentiate the organisations who are serious about making a change versus some who are still talking, have no thoughts and concrete plans in place.