Unbelievably, it was over 30 years ago that Dr. James Hansen, then director of NASA’s Institute for Space Studies, first said to a Committee: “In my opinion, the greenhouse effect has been detected, and it is changing our climate now.”
Unfortunately, the problem continues and our actions are still causing evident long-term changes in weather patterns, resulting in widespread devastation around the world: wildfires, hurricanes, flooding, drought. A report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPPC) in 2014 stated that the increase in greenhouse gases over the past 100 years has primarily been a result of human activities. Carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere have risen 25% since 1958 (source: NOAA), however, there is still hope: The IPPC believe that if we can restrict any increase in atmospheric temperatures to less than 1.5°C, we have a chance to protect our planet from irreversible changes, and we can do that by reducing our carbon emissions.
A carbon neutral company
As propagators of online meetings, we naturally have a low carbon footprint (a measure of how much greenhouse gases our company is responsible for emitting into the atmosphere). In 2019, pre-pandemic, our carbon footprint was just 6.2 tonnes of CO2e – to put that into context, that is the equivalent of running 1.3 small passenger cars for a year. This was calculated by Orbis Advisory Ltd in line with the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) protocol. We offset our carbon emissions through a programme that protected rainforests in Brazil and planted trees in the United Kingdom, to become fully carbon neutral.
Carbon offsetting is one way to help tackle climate change; by investing in initiatives that actively remove the harmful greenhouse gases from the atmosphere we can combat a big part of the problem. This is not the only action we need to be taking though. As organisations, we need to be actively trying to reduce our emissions in the first place as well as offsetting those emissions we do produce.
Helping you reduce your emissions
In traditional medical education, expert speakers fly all round the world to connect with different groups of doctors, sharing their experiences and updating frontline healthcare professionals in the latest medical advances. The Corpus works with some of the largest pharmaceutical companies around the world to develop engaging online medical education programmes, reducing this environmental impact (largely from flight emissions) for our clients. We connect speakers based in Australia with hospitals in Brazil and experts from Germany can talk to doctors in Japan – all without having to leave their city or town. Our virtual meetings, on average, prevent 2.11 tonnes of CO2e from entering the atmosphere – just three meetings with us would save as much in CO2e as we emit in a year.
In 2019 alone, we helped reduce one clients’ emissions by over 183 tonnes.
We're committed to change
The Corpus, as part of the AS&K Group, is committed to tackling climate change and reducing our emissions. As a group we have set ambitious goals using the Science Based Target initiative’s (SBTi) framework.
And we’re not just committed to reducing our own carbon footprint; we want to help you reduce yours too. Contact us to find out how our medical education programmes can be built into your long-term climate commitments.
