And so after months of planning, weeks of fretting and an afternoon of absolute mayhem SN were ready to present Bangon08 to the world or at least a small part of Manchester (same difference).

The evening turned out to be eventful, a few revellers were a little worse for wear and a certain office manager had a dance off with her fiance to truly top the evening off in style but despite these images burning into our retinas we are proud to announce that the night was ultimately a huge success.

The venue was great, the bands were fabulous and the atmosphere was like a massive hug….although obviously I mean the rocky type….or something.  Everyone seemed to have a fantastic night and we just want to say a MASSIVE thank you (Oscar stylee) to The Underclass, The Score & 1913 who, although a fair way from being true gentleman did exactly what they said on the tin: entertained, looked pretty and played some bloody good tunes….enjoyed by all and very good sports to boot. (more…)

As you may have noticed here at Studio North we take our environmental responsibility extremely seriously.  We want to do our bit and we want to do it right.

As a consequence of which I embarked on a scheme to discover the most credible way in which to carbon offset the emissions that we could not eliminate by switching to a sustainable energy provider or by turning off those lights in the loos; little did I know what a murky road I was embarking upon….

The problem with carbon offsetting is essentially ambiguity.  The more you look into it the more you realise that the money that you pay may not be going to the projects that you are investing in but rather get ‘lost’ in a system that is fledgling at best.  After all, carbon offsetting is the most amount of money in the modern business world that people invest without demanding proof of purchase or credible returns.  Many carbon offsetting sites have been criticised heavily for the lack of financial information provided and as a rapidly growing industry this should not go unnoticed. 

A second problem is credibility.  DEFRA, the governments environmental arm so to speak seems to have got on the band wagon a little too late and is having trouble reigning everything in.  It was only in February that it created a Carbon Offsetting Best Code of Practice which is in itself merely voluntary guidelines and has come a couple of years later than the initial offsetting companies. 

The Gold Standard is the most credible way to purchase carbon offset credits, guaranteing that projects approved by them will be independently verified and are supported by 51 NGO’s.  Perfect you might think but in fact the cost of such schemes, being few and far between at the moment is extremely prohibitive for small and medium sized businesses and so such companies have to think again.   

And as for us?  The journey to our chosen scheme has been long and eye opening and the experience was certainly not wasted.  We still firmly believe that small actions lead to big difference and as such will continue to offset and do as much as possible to become carbon neutral.  This may appear a bit odd in light of the above but it is all very well to sit on your laurels and berate things without actually tring to make a difference.  What we have learnt is that these projects should not be embarked on lightly and that these schemes need to be monitored closely to ensure that business, and more importantly the environment are getting a good return from their investments.  But rest assured, we will be doing just that, using the knowledge we gain to make the bigger difference.

For more information on the scheme we have chosen please visit: http://www.carbonfootprint.com/offsetalternativeenergy.html

For the Gold Standard and DEFRA website please select the hyperlinks below:

http://www.cdmgoldstandard.org/index.php 

http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/climatechange/uk/carbonoffset/codeofpractice.htm

The Environmental Business Pledge is a unique initiative aimed at Manchester businesses who wish to improve their environmental performance. The scheme both rewards and recognises those businesses that have made a solid commitment and tangible improvement to their environmental attitude and impact.

Assessed on three levels; acknowledgement (bronze), action (silver) & achievement (gold) the pledge is an easy way for businesses to become involved in the local environment whilst rewarding those that have been successful.

We are proud to have achieved the Bronze level award since being made aware of the scheme in April and are well on our way to earning silver by the end of the year.

For more information please visit Manchester City Council’s website by clicking on the link above.

Using the Carbon Trust’s website we have calculated our carbon footprint including business and personal miles to and from work, our energy use and the waste that we generate inhouse.  This does not by any means make us carbon neutral but it’s a good place to start and as you may have gathered by now, we’re all about good starting points!

Carbon Footprint Ltd is an independent company which offsets carbon emissions by investing in various clean & renewable energy projects globally.  Through the Carbon Trust we established that we needed to offset over 26 tonnes of carbon to significantly reduce our footprint for May 2007 – May 2008 and did so via Carbon Footprint’s website.

The project we chose is investing in wind turbines and is based in Harshnath, India.  Using the Voluntary Carbon Standard (VCS) the project is governed by credible but easy to understand criteria which convinced us that we were investing wisely.  For more on Carbon Footprint Ltd please click the logo below, or for our specific project click on the wind turbines.