Tharstern launches instant carbon footprint calculator

‘Carbon accounting is becoming as mainstream as cost accounting, and we’re now entering an era when it’s as normal to ask about the environmental footprint of goods or services as it is price,’ said Dominic Harris, co-founder of CarbonQuota. ‘With many of the world’s organizations making pledges to be Net Zero, the need for scientific measurement and detailed reporting of packaging and print is often a pre-requisite for doing business with these organizations. 

Print service providers who want to be included in these supply chains will have to provide details of their carbon footprint. Historically, print businesses often only looked at the carbon footprint of paper, which accounted for about half of the total carbon footprint of the job, so we were determined that our calculations not only measured paper but also included production, consumables, transport, postage, outwork, fulfillment and end of life, as that truly reflects the total lifecycle environmental impact of a job.’

The first user of the new integration is Gecko, a direct marketing agency based in Leeds. 

‘We’re hearing more and more about the importance of reducing our carbon impact, and at Gecko, we wanted to do the right thing and be part of the solution,’ commented Chris Bottomley, managing Director at Gecko. ‘I asked CarbonQuota to calculate the footprint of two jobs we had just produced for a key client in the insurance sector. The results of that were a real eyeopener and led to the idea of adding the carbon footprint calculation to our quote letters, along with optional costs for offsetting it.’

The first step in the project was for CarbonQuota to carry out a carbon footprint assessment of Gecko’s operation, which took a few weeks. The data from this study was included in CarbonQuota’s database and algorithms, so they were able to work out the carbon footprint of every process within Gecko’s operation, which in turn were loaded into Gecko’s instance of Tharstern.  

This enables CarbonQuota to calculate and apply unique ‘carbon emissions factors’ to every substrate, consumable, production process, and distribution stage, as well as an assessment of the carbon impact at the end of life of each job. Gecko can now use its MIS to show clients the carbon footprint of each job, offer lower-carbon alternatives, and give them the chance to offset the carbon impact of that job. 

‘The project at Gecko shows that carbon footprinting for the packaging and print sector can be automated and science-based,’ said Lee Ward, CRO at Tharstern. ‘Once the assessment has been carried out by CarbonQuota and the carbon tool in Tharstern is configured, our users just continue to use Tharstern in the same way – nothing changes other than the new addition to each quote and the ability to report on the company’s carbon footprint. It saves a huge amount of time and opens superior levels of carbon measurement for our customers.

‘The carbon impact of the manufacturing sector is under enormous scrutiny right now and the print industry has a rare opportunity to demonstrate leadership in sustainability and show the wider sectors how it should be done – this solution ticks all the boxes of even the toughest customers.’