Auroville Consulting (AVC) published its annual sustainability report for the financial year 2022-23.
This year we intensified this practice along with the digital footprint through network usage and website hosting, understanding the impact of our recently installed HVAC system, and emissions avoided through providing e-bikes to all our team members. We have achieved a net zero emission balance for FY 2022-23. This was made possible through planned interventions and implementation of good practices to reduce gross emissions, followed by investment in long term effective carbon positive projects. Some key highlights:
- 92% of this year’s gross emissions were offset by planting trees and the remaining 8% was offset by excess solar generation, making AVC a carbon net-zero organisation.
- 100% of electricity demand was supplied by renewable energy through rooftop solar.
- 25.58 kWh of electricity was consumed per square meter of office space, which is 86% lower than the benchmark of Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) for an office building in a warm and humid climate (Benchmark: 182 kWh/sq. m/yr).
- From March 2022 onwards, the organisation has been providing electric two-wheelers to all its full-time team members for their daily commute to and from office and for their own personal use, along with a charging facility supplied by an additional installed capacity of rooftop solar. This initiative resulted in :
- An emission reduction of 2,584 kg CO2e for their daily commute to and from office, which is an 88% decrease in comparison to the previous year, and
- An emission reduction of 6,309 kgCO2e, which was achieved by converting the personal commute of our team members to e-vehicles and charging them through renewable energy. This is a value higher than the total gross emissions of the organisation..
- 98% of the operational expenditure was made in local areas, with 91% inside Auroville; and the remaining 2% in Pondicherry and Tamil Nadu – preventing unnecessary emissions and stimulating the local economy.
