Northern Light & environmental responsibility

The EL 2011 Northern Light is the first EL Congress ever where the carbon dioxide emissions incurred during the congress are compensated. Carbon Footprint of Northern Light was 62kg CO2 per participants. This equals to 350 km car driving (average Finnish car, 179g CO2/km).

Total carbon footprint of the congress was 30 tCO2 and it was originating from:
• electricity and heating at congress center, casino and opera house
• catering: lunches, dinners, refreshments
• all bus transportation (between venues, airport-hotels)
• accompanying person programme
(calculating by Gaia Consulting)

All the CO2 emissions resulting from the congress have been compensated through Nordic Offiset, which is the only Finnish operator in this field. Nordic Offset´s projects are Gold Standard certified and recommended by WWF. Compensating emissions simply means that an organization compensates the CO2 emissions it has generated by reducing the corresponding amount of emissions elsewhere.

The emissions caused by Northern Light have been compensated by investing in the wind farm project in Damao, China. The project aims at generating electricity through renewable energy and feeding it directly to the local electricity network.

Other environmental responsibility which were taken in the Northern Light:
• During the Northern Light, we used primarily electronic communications, such as direct emails and electronic invitations to the participants.
• Green electricity at congress center and Grand Casino
• Congress Center served pure tap water
• Programme guide book was in one book – aim was to reduce paper material