Indiantelevision.com Team

(25 May 2007 3:30 pm)

MUMBAI: Havas has revealed that it is the first Global Communications Group to become carbon neutral in six of its key markets, including India, marking the first step in the group's commitment to greener working practices.

Havas has instigated a program of carbon emissions reduction and has been assessed and approved as a holder of the ZeroCO2 certification of carbon neutrality after having calculated and offset its main carbon emissions in 2006, including electricity and gas consumption, paper usage and business travel, says an official company statement.

Havas' carbon emissions in France, UK, Spain, US, Mexico and India amounted to the equivalent of 32, 382 metric tonnes of CO2 in 2006, and it has started a focused internal process to reduce this by 20 per cent by 2009. This will primarily affect paper usage, transport and other key sources of carbon emissions. This reduction program will be supported by an internal awareness campaign and training programs to help employees reduce their impact on the environment.

This strong commitment at the global level follows initiatives at the local level. For example, in 2005 Havas Media France nominated a Sustainable Development Manager who has been helping to develop an innovative program called "Ecopublicité", to measure the environmental impact of production and distribution during the lifecycle of a media campaign in partnership with ADEME, LVMH and Ecobilan. Last year, Euro RSCG UK was the first Havas agency to become carbon neutral.

The Havas executive committee states, "Havas' decision to become carbon neutral is a significant step in our plans to increase our Group's corporate social responsibility and contribute to fighting the problem of climate change. Our undertaking is differentiated from that of other initiatives in the market because not only will Havas be directly contributing to reducing CO2 emissions, but we also hope that our programme to promote this shift towards a more responsible and environmentally friendly culture will benefit our clients, shareholders and teams."

As part of its carbon offset programme, Havas has chosen to invest in protecting standing forests and their biodiversity, and creating new forest ecosystems through three projects located in Latin America, Asia and Africa respectively.

The projects, led by the non-profit organisations Tour du Valat in Arles, France (experts in the protection and revival of mangroves and wetlands) and Fundación Natura in Barcelona, Spain through the ZeroCO2 initiative, have a triple benefit: to help tackle climate change reducing carbon dioxide present in the atmosphere, to improve the livelihood of local communities, and to protect the Earth's rich and endangered biodiversity. For example, the project in Latin America will take place in Brazil in the state of Santa Catarina and will consist of protecting and helping to reforest Atlantic rainforest, a threatened natural habitat of which only a 7 per cent of the original area remains. The cost for each tonne of carbon emitted is between 10€-20€.