As the end of the World Environment Day event approached, Garry Fowler, Co-chair of the Environment Sustainability Committee came to the podium, and after thanking John Thwaites and the panel for their contribution to the event, he gave a brief overview of the creation of a Carbon Calculator to enable Rotary Clubs to estimate their carbon emissions generated as the result of their activity and take action to either eliminate or offset that emission with carbon credits.
Garry noted that applying the Carbon calculator to Rotary Melbourne’s emissions in a year of restricted operations (2020/21) revealed emissions of 7 kg of CO2. He noted that the Sofitel’s chicken based luncheon at this event generated just one third of the carbon emissions of a typical beef based meal at a Rotary luncheon.
At Garry’s invitation Andrew Mahar AM, Honorary Consul for the Republic of Timore-Leste, and founder of WithOneSeed, an East Timor based social enterprise. WithOneSeed’s planting of trees to restore Forrests in Timor-Leste enable the creation and sale of carbon credits. Andrew then joined Garry on the podium to present a Carbon Social certificate to Rotary Melbourne to offset Rotary Melbourne’s carbon emissions in the previous year.
WithOneSeed works with subsistence farming communities in Timor-Leste to replant their forests thereby creating a carbon store to build local economies, deliver practical education and training in agroforestry and permaculture to create a more sustainable, equal and just world.
The 8 minutes clip of the segment can be viewed by following this link: https://youtu.be/qrSPhikWCPg
