SAN FRANCISCO, CA — (Marketwire) — 10/19/11 — announced today that it is the first company in North America to have been recognized by The Climate Registry with its Climate Registered Silver designation.
This status is conferred by the to organizations that have demonstrated their commitment to sustainability by successfully measuring, verifying, and reporting their carbon footprint according to The Climate Registry–s best-in-class program. To secure this designation, 3Degrees also committed to a timeline for meeting specific absolute Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions GHG emission reduction goals and demonstrated that it has implemented at least five greenhouse gas reduction best practices.
“We are proud to be the first company to achieve Climate Registered Silver status,” said Dan Kalafatas, CEO of 3Degrees. “The process to become Climate Registered Silver helped us discover new ways in which we could mitigate our emissions and further reinforced our belief that corporate sustainability should be approached as an ongoing journey, not a destination.”
A charter member of the reduction program, 3Degrees is a renewable energy and carbon offsets sales, trading, and advisory firm. 3Degrees partners with organizations that seek to use green power and verified greenhouse gas emission reductions to build value for their customers, employees, investors, and other stakeholders.
Measuring its carbon footprint with The Registry, and committing to a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, allows 3Degrees to identify inefficiencies and potential for cost savings, and provide real and meaningful data to its customers and shareholders about its environmental performance. It is an important step forward in reducing 3Degrees energy usage, costs, and carbon emissions.
3Degrees– participation in the Climate Registered program is just one part of the company–s corporate sustainability program. This program seeks to reduce energy use and waste, renew or recycle what the company can–t reduce, and balance out unavoidable greenhouse gas emissions. As part of the program, 3Degrees employees evaluate the environmental aspect of products or services at the same level as other major procurement decision factors, including quality, cost, and delivery time.
In addition, as part of its sustainability program, 3Degrees:
Helps subsidize fare costs for employees who commute to work using public transportation
Incorporates sustainability best practices into day-to-day operations, such as double-sided printing, “smart” thermostats, compact fluorescent lighting, and energy conservation
Contracts only with local FSC-Certified printers who use 100 percent soy based inks for external printing projects
Uses environmentally sustainable office materials
Prints in-house on at least 30 percent post-consumer recycled paper
Provides socially and environmentally focused 401(k) investment opportunities to eligible employees
Requires that all electronics and appliances purchased for the company be Energy Star certified
Utilizes green energy powered web hosting
Recommends the selection of hybrid or fuel-efficient vehicles for corporate travel whenever they are available
Matches 100 percent of the firm–s electricity usage with , and balances out all emissions resulting from employees– car and air travel (commuting and business) with third-party verified
“Our mission, and our business, is founded upon the idea that governments, organizations, and individuals need to take responsibility for their environmental impact, and in doing so accelerate the low-carbon, renewable energy economy,” said Kalafatas. “Our partnership with The Climate Registry, and our other sustainability initiatives, are all part of making sure that 3Degrees –walks the talk– went it comes to realizing this mission, not just in terms of our work in the green power and carbon offset markets, but in our internal business operations as well.”
“Climate Registered organizations understand that there are both environmental and economic benefits to understanding and managing your carbon footprint,” said David Rosenheim, Executive Director of The Climate Registry. “3Degrees is part of a powerful community of Climate Registered organizations, with substantive data guiding and supporting its sustainable activities.”
3Degrees– mission is to mitigate the effects of climate change by accelerating the low-carbon, renewable energy economy. 3Degrees realizes this mission by helping its utility, business, LEED green building, and other partners utilize environmental commodities to build stakeholder value. Through these partnerships, 3Degrees increases demand for Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) and carbon offsets, channels capital to renewable energy and carbon reduction projects, and improves the efficiency of environmental markets.
Winner of the U.S. Department of Energy–s Green Power Leadership Award for four straight years, 3Degrees is headquartered in San Francisco and operates regional offices in Portland, St. Louis, and Seattle. To learn more, visit .
The Climate Registry is a non-profit organization that operates the only carbon footprint registry in North America supported by states, provinces, territories and tribes. The Climate Registry helps hundreds of public and private organizations measure, report, and reduce their greenhouse gas emissions with integrity.
For more information, please visit .
Jason Brown
3Degrees
O: 415-674-1420
M: 917-548-4451
Alex Carr
The Climate Registry
O: 778.340.8837
M: 778 384 8711