Dublin-based McGowans has become the first print and packaging site in Ireland to sign up for CarbonQuota’s carbon footprinting service, which it will use to measure its carbon footprint for ‘honest and accurate’ sustainability reporting part of its ongoing drive to decrease its environmental impact.
McGowans is a member of the World Land Trust, a supporter of FSC, the UN Sustainable Development Goals, Climate Pledge and Ecovadis. The company has already implemented may of the ‘standard’ sustainabilty tactics, removing solvents, waste segregation, recycling, anti-landfill waste systems, reducing power consumption and installing solar panels. However it felt that what is best practice and what is deemed ‘market acceptable’ still lack clarity terms of maintaining a responsible pathway to reducing carbon footprints.
CarbonQuota was able to help, via access to five years of activity-based scientifically sound sector data to measure carbon emissions accurately. According to CarbonQuota, the model does not use financial spend data or averages but instead uses a specific industry-led and science-based database to deliver figures.
‘We believe that to truly make a difference, we need solid, measurable data,’ said Emerson Palmer, sales director at McGowans. ‘Through our partnership with CarbonQuota, we can now show tangible results and provide our clients with accurate, informed data on their consumption behaviours.’
McGowans initially engaged CarbonQuota to assess its Scope 1 and 2 carbon footprint, effectively measuring the direct carbon contributions of the entire organisation, reflecting its bought-in supplies and on-site use. The results established a reliable baseline but also provided valuable recommendations for McGowans’ carbon reduction strategy.
The CarbonQuota calculator has subsequently been integrated into McGowans’ Tharstern MIS. This captures specification data at point of entry for quotations and returns product-level carbon footprints directly to McGowans ‘in seconds’. The calculator embodies a holistic approach, taking into consideration not only McGowans’ facilities but also those of its suppliers and their suppliers. This results in broader and more accurate carbon value data that can be reported to environmental disclosure platforms such as Ecovadis, and shared directly with clients to inform decision making.
Robyn Newberry, head of marketing at CarbonQuota, added, ‘By integrating the carbon footprint at quoting stage, printers can engage their customers in informed and confident conversations about the environmental impact of their products, elevating the discussion beyond price. This is absolutely the standard we should be striving for in the industry.’
