How We Offset Our Carbon Footprint
Carbon offsetting allows companies to invest in environmental projects around the world in order to balance out their own carbon footprint. At WeHero, we partner with Cool Effect on The Mare Chicose landfill project to avoid methane emissions and generate renewable energy.
The Mare Chicose landfill is an active landfill site in Mauritius which has been in operation since 1997 and has approximately received 7.9 million tonnes of waste as of November 2018 and receives around 530,000 tones of waste per year. This is the only landfill site on Mauritius Island, an island threatened by rising seas due to climate change and located off the east coast of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean.
As a developing economy with traditionally inefficient, carbon-intensive supply chains, Mauritius represents an ideal case for decarbonization opportunities. Due to the small market size, economies of scale are minimal, costs are high and there’s not much appetite among foreign companies to invest in improved infrastructure, which makes carbon financing - or a high degree of subsidization - essential.
The Mare Chicose landfill project collects and flares landfill gas and generates electricity, combining decarbonization with improved waste management. The project activity involves the installation of an active landfill gas collection system, an enclosed flare system, and a modular electricity generation system. By capturing the methane being released from the landfill, the project is supplying the island of Mauritius with clean, renewable energy instead of shipping in dirty coal.
Carbon revenues are used to create a more efficient gas collection system than required by law, including wells, piping, and intermediary gas collection stations. Funds from carbon offsets are also used to create an electrical plant in order to generate electricity from landfill gas.
The project promotes sustainable development, with several positive social and environmental impacts. The installed landfill gas collection and flaring system is more efficient than the baseline situation preventing potentially explosive situations associated with the subsurface migration of gas, disposing of methane gas safely, and controlling and reducing odour nuisances and health risks. The Project will act as a model for LFG management, a key element in improving landfill management practices for the Host Country and other countries/islands in the region. It optimises the use of natural resources and acts as a clean energy demonstration project, encouraging less dependency on grid-supplied electricity, promoting and diversifying sustainable energy systems. Finally, the Project increases employment opportunities. It will provide for both short and long-term employment for local people: local contractors and labourers for construction, and long-term staff for operation and maintenance.
By investing in the Mare Chicose Landfill Project, we take responsibility for our carbon footprint and contribute to global efforts to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases that are released into the atmosphere, and to help mitigate climate change.
