The Catalan Institute of Cork Foundation (ICSuro) renews its seal of the Program of Voluntary Agreements for the reduction of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions. It is a commitment that began in 2015 to demonstrate the entity's carbon footprint in line with the European guidelines that establish the Sustainable Development Goals and which means that work is done annually to reduce it by means of the identification and improvement of critical points.

The 2022 inventory

The 2022 inventory includes direct combustion emissions from mobile sources and indirect emissions from purchased energy, transport and services used. In 2022, the emissions generated by the Institut Català del Suro Foundation have decreased globally by 10,98% compared to the previous year.

This fact is mainly due to the decrease in electricity consumption by -22.87% for two reasons: the installation of solar panels, which has made it possible to generate and self-consume 8412kWh, and the change of electricity supplier from Indexo (a green marketer but without a renewable energy certificate) to Iberdrola (a renewable energy marketer) .

Another factor that too has decreased by 95,62% is the transport of customers and visitors, since in 2021 the ICSuro had the visits of students and teachers of the ERASMUS+ EcoCORK program which promotes immersive experiences in the world of cork and aeronautics for students from different countries. However, in 2022 ICSuro continued to participate in the project but visited the other participating countries, which has increased business travel.

Two more categories of indirect emissions have been added to the 2022 inventory: telecommuting and industrial waste treatment.

Finally, it is worth highlighting the increase in on-route transport by 35.40% and distribution transport by 1.481%. In the first case, associated with the fact that the ICSuro team has increased and there has been a change of position. The two new additions live more than 30km from the workplace. And in the second case, it is linked to the fact that this year the emissions of the contracted courier service have been taken into account, accounting for all shipments and weighting them by weight or volume.

The 2022 improvements

The improvements carried out in 2022 have consisted of the installation of a photovoltaic system of 34.04kWp formed by 77 panels and the implementation of a weekly telework day  as main initiatives.

Proposals planned for 2023

For this year, the improvement objectives have been set replacement of 4 72W fluorescent light points by LED of the chromatography department and the installation of 3 solar curtains in three windows of 4m by 3m, in order to favor the correct air conditioning of the laboratory space.

Committed to the environment

The Voluntary Agreements Program is driven by theCatalan Climate Change Office (OCCC) and aims to recognize organizations that voluntarily want to establish a commitment to reduce their emissions. The seal is reviewed annually and measures to improve are proposed for each campaign. ICSuro's participation in this program responds to the foundation's sensitivity to the environmental, social or economic impact it generates in its environment. In this sense, ICSuro is also integrated into the international management model of theEconomy of the Common Good and has self-assessed on the basis of this system. Consult the memory.