Less
Lessening your environmental footprint
Greenhouse gases (GHGs) are gases that trap heat in the Earth's atmosphere, causing the Earth's temperature to rise. Six GHGs are targeted under the Kyoto Protocol due to the significant impact these gases have on our atmosphere and the tremendous volume produced as a result of human activities. For a list of how the Environmental Protection Agency defines greenhouse gases click here.
There are two types of emissions: direct and indirect. The Greenhouse Gas Protocol Initiative defines direct emissions as those originating from sources that are owned or controlled by an organization (Scope 1). Examples include those emitted directly from a manufacturing site or from company-owned fleet vehicles. Indirect emissions are those emissions created as a consequence of the activities of an organization, but generated from sources owned or controlled by another entity. Examples of indirect emissions include those associated with purchased electricity (Scope 2) or employee air travel (Scope 3).
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), global warming potentials (GWPs) are used to compare the abilities of different greenhouse gases to trap heat in the atmosphere. GWPs are based on the radiative efficiency (heat-absorbing ability) of each gas relative to that of carbon dioxide (CO2), as well as the decay rate of each gas (the amount removed from the atmosphere over a given number of years) relative to that of CO2. The GWP provides a construct for converting emissions of various gases into a common measure, which allows climate analysts to aggregate the radiative impacts of various greenhouse gases into a uniform measure denominated in carbon or carbon dioxide equivalents. For a table of GWPs for the different greenhouse gases click here.
Less offsets
Less sources offsets from the Gold Standard and Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) programs located predominantly in developing countries. Less sources offsets from Gold Standard-certified projects located in developing countries.
See our projects page for information on some of our featured projects.
Less is focused on providing the highest quality offsets on the market. Gold Standard and Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) projects achieve GHG emissions reductions that focus on renewable energy and energy efficiency projects. All projects are tested to ensure that they go beyond business as usual in terms of creating positive impacts for the environment, social networks and the local economy in which they operate. Currently, Less' Gold Standard and VCS offsets are from energy efficiency projects that are achieving quantifiable emissions reductions by replacing fossil fuel-based energy generation sources. The emissions reductions calculated are permanent and are verified to have taken place. By contrast, projects that rely on storing carbon, such as tree planting, run the risk of sequestering carbon over an undetermined period of time. In some cases, there is no certainty that the amount of carbon projected to be offset at the beginning of the project will actually be mitigated/offset.
Less provides an annual independent audit by an internationally recognized auditing firm to demonstrate that all international offsets are derived from Gold Standard or VCS, and all of our previously supported Canadian offsets derived from either VER+ Standard-certified or CSA Standard. The audit ensures serialized offsets are retired on behalf of Less customers to preclude double-counting of the environmental benefits. It is also designed to validate that Less has sourced sufficient offsets from Gold Standard, VCS, VER+ Standard-certified or CSA Standard certified projects to meet or exceed its contracted commitments.
When you offset through Less, your purchase will be split equally between our current Gold Standard and VCS project offerings.
See our projects page for information on some of our featured projects.
Air travel
Yes. Aircraft operations generate greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels. Such emissions increase the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. These additional gases enhance the greenhouse effect, which in turn causes climate change.
According to Environment Canada's National Inventory Report on Greenhouse Gas Sources and Sinks, air travel accounts for approximately 2% of all greenhouse gas emissions in the country. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimates that by 2050, emissions from global air travel will account for 5% of the total human climate change impact. Source
Besides carbon dioxide emissions, aviation produces other harmful emissions or soot and condensation trails (contrails—which can help form cirrus clouds). According to experts from Imperial College London, radiative forcing is any change in the balance between radiation coming into the atmosphere (the sun's rays) and radiation going out (infrared energy and heat). Positive radiative forcing tends to warm the surface of the Earth, and negative radiative forcing tends to cool it.
Air travel has a high positive radiative forcing component and it is for this reason that air travel is viewed as having a large impact on global warming. Specifically, the emissions released from an airplane occur high in the atmosphere (stratosphere) compared to other sources that are emitted in the lower atmosphere (troposphere). High altitude GHG emissions, along with contrails from the plane (which contain water vapour—a GHG in itself), have a large positive radiative factor, which greatly inhibits infrared radiation and heat from leaving the Earth's atmosphere.
Although the science is not conclusive, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recommends that a radiative forcing factor of 2.0 to 4.0 be applied against all air travel.
Less multiplies the emissions factor used by the Canadian Standards Association (in kilograms of CO2e per passenger kilometre) by the distance of the flight, using the longitudes and latitudes of the airports and accounting for the curvature or the earth. The figure is then multiplied by the number of trip segments (one-way or return).
Flight distances are calculated using a great circle, which charts the shortest route between two points on a sphere (such as the earth). A great circle is created by drawing a large circle all the way around the sphere with the centre of the sphere at the centre of the circle.
An uplift factor is applied to the great circle distance to account for stacking at airports during periods of heavy congestion.
Flight distances have an impact on the emissions of a flight based on the overall flight time versus takeoff or landing, which generate a disproportionate amount of the flight's emissions. Less uses the UK's Department of Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA) calculators which calculates for domestic, short haul, long haul and international distances and also distinguishes between average, business class and economy. Based on the geography of Canada and the current airline offers in the market, we've chosen to simplify our calculator and use the DEFRA average customer international flight factor to represent the estimated emissions for all flights.
Customers have the option to choose to offset the impacts of emitting greenhouse gases at a high altitude (called high altitude impacts or radiative forcing), multiplying their emissions footprint by a factor of 2.0, the minimum range recommended by the IPCC.
Less calculates each segment of a flight independently. By doing so, we account for the significant amount of emissions generated through each take-off and landing process.
In the case of layovers, we provide two specialized features to help customers determine their emissions:
- The Multiple Destinations feature allows customers to quickly include a layover by simply adding each destination to the end of your itinerary.
- The Open Jaw feature can account for layovers as well, but is primarily designed to help customers determine their emissions in cases in which they fly into one city but return from another.
Although the calculation processes for Multiple Destination and Open Jaw are slightly different, the total emissions for an equivalent trip will be the same.
I'm taking two separate flights in one trip with another mode of transportation in between (e.g., flight then train then flight). Can I use your calculator to determine my emissions?
Yes, this is called an Open Jaw ticket. An Open Jaw ticket is an airline ticket on which a traveler returns from a city other than the one he or she originally flew to, or wherein the final destination is not the same as the initial departure city. This type of arrangement may be necessary when commuting via car, boat or train between different aviation points. For instance, a traveler might fly from St. John's to Montreal, commute from Montreal to Toronto by train, and fly back home to St. John's from Toronto.
Will the emissions of the whole flight be offset or only those associated with the offset purchase's specified number of passengers?
Only the emissions associated with a purchase's specified number of passengers will be offset. For example, if the flight itinerary applies to only one flight passenger, the emissions of that single passenger will be offset. Greenhouse gas emissions per person are estimated by multiplying the average emissions factor per individual passenger kilometre by the number of kilometres travelled. To determine the number of kilometres, Less employs the Great Circle Method of determining distances.
The Great Circle Method uses the shortest distance between any two points on the surface of a sphere. Although the Earth is an oblate spheroid, we can employ the math associated to a sphere to determine the path a plane takes in the air. As such, the great circle reflects the measured distance along a path on the surface of the sphere (as opposed to going through the sphere's interior).
Click here to see an example of the Great Circle method in action. Click here to see how distances are calculated based on the Great Circle method.
Yes. Less offers the option of purchasing offsets by volume for activities such as vehicle use, travel accommodations, conferences and general operations. Click here to purchase by the tonne.