Home Office and/or Coworking Space (Including Water)
SKU:
CA$99.50
CA$99.50
per item
This is the cost PER full-time employee. For example, if you have 3 employees, please change the Quantity below to 3!
Get in touch if you'd like a customized impact assessment, and learn about methodology and how to decrease impacts below!
Get in touch if you'd like a customized impact assessment, and learn about methodology and how to decrease impacts below!
Do you work mainly from home, a co-working space, and/or other various public spaces such as the library? Good news, your footprint is likely lower than if you worked in a regular office building!
What's included in the package?
The water, carbon, and ecological footprint impacts of:
What if I can't afford the full footprint offset? Are there other options?
We know our supporters want to decrease impact on the environment, but sometimes it's not financially possible. First, read our spiel on why reducing impacts is preferable to offsetting impacts, and identify ways to reduce your negative impacts.
For whatever you can't reduce, we offer links to our partners’ websites if you are only interested/able to afford offsetting one of your footprints. The websites all have different navigation styles, but we’ve put a lot of time into making sure they’re the right fit and high quality, so enjoy checking them out!
Carbon footprint - Less.ca, use their flight calculator or tonnes calculator
Water footprint - BEF's Water Restoration Certificates®
Land footprint - BioR's land restoration program for ecological footprints
Buyer Beware: There are many offsets out there that sound lovely, and some do support excellent projects, but many of them are not verified by third parties which make sure their offsets are actually making the difference they claim. It's hard not to be enticed by the lower prices, but if it sounds too good to be true, it usually is!
We can also do personalized assessments of your impact, it may end up being lower than the average calculated in this package. If you're willing to put in a few minutes so we can find a more accurate impact, it may be lower than the price listed. Get in touch!
What can I do to reduce the negative environmental impacts of my workplace?
Methodology
How did we calculate the water footprint?
We used the Small to Medium Enterprise calculator provided by the Water Footprint Network, the non-profit association which compiles and keeps information about the water footprint updated. There were some limitations, as these calculators are based for small organizations that manufacture goods in various countries, whereas many organizations who have spoken to Full Footprint and are interested in offsets are service-based and are from all over the world. So, using the calculator, we removed anything to do with manufacturing and stuck with only office consumption. Additionally, in the case of home offices and coworking spaces, people tend to commute less and often use public transit more than cars, so we also removed a large portion of the commuting emissions. Finally, we calculated the average space taken up by an individual in a home office (and % of time used) or in a co-working space, and used that per m3 as opposed to the larger office and factory areas assumed.
What is direct and indirect water consumption? According to the Water Footprint Network:
“The direct water footprint of a consumer or producer (or a group of consumers or producers) refers to the freshwater consumption and pollution that is associated to the water use by the consumer or producer. It is distinct from the indirect water footprint, which refers to the water consumption and pollution that can be associated with the production of the goods and services consumed by the consumer or the inputs used by the producer.”
We only include direct water consumption in this package, simply because including indirect would be more than most are willing or able to pay. A small organization may consume about 147m3 of water/year per person (from water used in direct buildings, etc), and 858m3/year indirectly (water impact of products and services consumed, or 22,6650 US gallons). This would increase the costs of this package over 5 times. If you would like to offset that entire water footprint, then we encourage you to do so at our partner's site: BEF's Water Restoration Certificates®
Overall, we assume a portion of someone’s home or apartment, and/or a small portion of a larger coworking space (both desk and common areas) is used for working. This includes heating, electricity, and basic items such as shared printers. We also include occasional business travel and/or commuting through a combination of public transit, driving, and other modes, except for air travel, which requires separate offsets given its disproportionately large impact.
Carbon Footprint: We use a combination of sources to double check reasonable rates of carbon for small businesses based out of a home or co-working space. We currently use a combination of calculators and their data, including from Tree Canada, which uses data from Natural Resources Canada and on emission factors from the Government of Canada and the UK Government.
Ecological Footprint: While there are many studies on the carbon footprint of small businesses, we were unable to find many on the ecological footprint. We found one study based in Europe, and extrapolated this information to come to an average.
Because carbon is typically included in ecological footprints, we "take out" the carbon to give people a picture of the scale of their carbon impact (because it's the largest portion of most ecological footprints, and a unit more people are used to learning about). This has the extra benefit of creating opportunities to support both our carbon and ecological footprint partners. Therefore, the ecological (land) footprint shared is the approximate ecological footprint of the business MINUS the carbon impact of the business.
What's included in the package?
The water, carbon, and ecological footprint impacts of:
- The portion of your home and/or co-working space you use for working
- Occasional business travel and/or commuting through a combination of public transit, driving, and other modes
- Light refreshments, such as snacks and coffee/tea
- Air travel - because traveling by air is a major environmental contributor, we offer it as a separate offset option
- Hotel stays - if you're staying at hotels for work, this is a separate offset
- Indirect water consumption - this package includes direct water consumption, such as used in the buildings you work from, but not the water for all products consumed. We have a full discussion of the difference further below in methodology.
What if I can't afford the full footprint offset? Are there other options?
We know our supporters want to decrease impact on the environment, but sometimes it's not financially possible. First, read our spiel on why reducing impacts is preferable to offsetting impacts, and identify ways to reduce your negative impacts.
For whatever you can't reduce, we offer links to our partners’ websites if you are only interested/able to afford offsetting one of your footprints. The websites all have different navigation styles, but we’ve put a lot of time into making sure they’re the right fit and high quality, so enjoy checking them out!
Carbon footprint - Less.ca, use their flight calculator or tonnes calculator
Water footprint - BEF's Water Restoration Certificates®
Land footprint - BioR's land restoration program for ecological footprints
Buyer Beware: There are many offsets out there that sound lovely, and some do support excellent projects, but many of them are not verified by third parties which make sure their offsets are actually making the difference they claim. It's hard not to be enticed by the lower prices, but if it sounds too good to be true, it usually is!
We can also do personalized assessments of your impact, it may end up being lower than the average calculated in this package. If you're willing to put in a few minutes so we can find a more accurate impact, it may be lower than the price listed. Get in touch!
What can I do to reduce the negative environmental impacts of my workplace?
- Transportation is often a big factor, if you work close to home, and travel by walking, cycling, and transit, you're good!
- Try to cut down business travel by air whenever possible
- Think about your product / service - is sustainability included at all stages of its "life" (materials, inputs, use, recycling)?
- When you buy goods and services - paper, website hosting, computers, lightbulbs, tea - are they from "green" providers?
- Recycling and composting is excellent, but even better is to think long and hard about what is bought, is it needed, can it be bought second-hand, can an option with less packaging be purchased, etc?
Methodology
How did we calculate the water footprint?
We used the Small to Medium Enterprise calculator provided by the Water Footprint Network, the non-profit association which compiles and keeps information about the water footprint updated. There were some limitations, as these calculators are based for small organizations that manufacture goods in various countries, whereas many organizations who have spoken to Full Footprint and are interested in offsets are service-based and are from all over the world. So, using the calculator, we removed anything to do with manufacturing and stuck with only office consumption. Additionally, in the case of home offices and coworking spaces, people tend to commute less and often use public transit more than cars, so we also removed a large portion of the commuting emissions. Finally, we calculated the average space taken up by an individual in a home office (and % of time used) or in a co-working space, and used that per m3 as opposed to the larger office and factory areas assumed.
What is direct and indirect water consumption? According to the Water Footprint Network:
“The direct water footprint of a consumer or producer (or a group of consumers or producers) refers to the freshwater consumption and pollution that is associated to the water use by the consumer or producer. It is distinct from the indirect water footprint, which refers to the water consumption and pollution that can be associated with the production of the goods and services consumed by the consumer or the inputs used by the producer.”
We only include direct water consumption in this package, simply because including indirect would be more than most are willing or able to pay. A small organization may consume about 147m3 of water/year per person (from water used in direct buildings, etc), and 858m3/year indirectly (water impact of products and services consumed, or 22,6650 US gallons). This would increase the costs of this package over 5 times. If you would like to offset that entire water footprint, then we encourage you to do so at our partner's site: BEF's Water Restoration Certificates®
Overall, we assume a portion of someone’s home or apartment, and/or a small portion of a larger coworking space (both desk and common areas) is used for working. This includes heating, electricity, and basic items such as shared printers. We also include occasional business travel and/or commuting through a combination of public transit, driving, and other modes, except for air travel, which requires separate offsets given its disproportionately large impact.
Carbon Footprint: We use a combination of sources to double check reasonable rates of carbon for small businesses based out of a home or co-working space. We currently use a combination of calculators and their data, including from Tree Canada, which uses data from Natural Resources Canada and on emission factors from the Government of Canada and the UK Government.
Ecological Footprint: While there are many studies on the carbon footprint of small businesses, we were unable to find many on the ecological footprint. We found one study based in Europe, and extrapolated this information to come to an average.
Because carbon is typically included in ecological footprints, we "take out" the carbon to give people a picture of the scale of their carbon impact (because it's the largest portion of most ecological footprints, and a unit more people are used to learning about). This has the extra benefit of creating opportunities to support both our carbon and ecological footprint partners. Therefore, the ecological (land) footprint shared is the approximate ecological footprint of the business MINUS the carbon impact of the business.