Less Launch

Less announces launch of highest-quality carbon offsets in Canada

TORONTO, April 2, 2008: Less Emissions Inc. today announced the launch of Lessen My Flight™, Canada�s first EcoLogo-certified, independently audited flight offset program. The program provides businesses and individuals interested in lessening their environmental footprint with a convenient and trustworthy method of reducing their emissions with high-quality carbon offsets, sourced from Gold Standard certified projects. Less™ provides customers with the option of purchasing flight offsets to address air travel or offsets by the tonne for those customers who simply wish to purchase high quality offsets by volume.

Lessen My Flight is the only carbon offset program in Canada to earn Environment Canada�s EcoLogo certification for excellence in environmental products. The Lessen My Flight Calculator allows customers to quickly and easily calculate their emissions associated with air travel and to select the required amount of carbon offsets to help mitigate those emissions.

All Lessen My Flight offsets are sourced from Gold Standard-certified projects, a globally recognized standard endorsed by leading environmental groups including WWF International, the David Suzuki Foundation, and the Pembina Institute. Gold Standard-certified projects achieve GHG emission reductions through international projects that focus on renewable energy and energy efficiency projects that reduce emissions at the source. All such projects must verifiably go beyond �business as usual� to create positive impacts on the environment, social networks and the local economy in which they operate. Unlike offsets from projects located in Canada, Gold Standard offsets are recognized by the international community as being additional to Canada�s commitments under the Kyoto protocol. All Less tonnes of CO₂e emission reductions are also serialized on registries recognized by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), allowing each tonne of reduction to be tracked over its lifetime and preventing double counting.

Less is the only Canadian retailer of carbon offsets that has committed to publishing an annual audit, to be conducted by an internationally recognized, independent auditor. Published on a calendar year basis, the 2008 Less Audit will be available in April 2009. This voluntary audit is designed to verify that all offsets are derived from valid projects and retired on behalf of Less customers to preclude double-counting of the environmental benefits. The audit is also designed to validate that Less has sourced sufficient inventory to meet or exceed its contracted commitments. These criteria ensure that businesses and individuals can purchase Less offsets with confidence, eliminating the risks inherent in purchasing low-quality offsets.

�Buying carbon offsets should always be regarded as a last resort and as an imperfect answer to the very real challenge of reducing global GHG emissions,� said Eugene Peters, Director, Less. �That�s why we advocate a three-step approach as endorsed by environmental groups to reducing your emissions footprint: first, conserve; secondly, switch to environmentally benign products and services; and finally, for only those unavoidable emissions that remain after you have made best efforts in the previous two areas, consider purchasing high-quality offsets from a trusted source.�

�WWF-Canada recommends, first and foremost, taking direct action to reduce your environmental footprint through conservation and switching to green power where it is available,� said Julia Langer, Director, Global Threat Programme, WWF-Canada.�Only then consider purchasing Gold Standard carbon offsets for the greenhouse gas emissions you can't reduce or eliminate.�

For more information on emission management solutions from Less, call 1-877-573-3669.

About Less
Less is Canada�s only provider of an EcoLogo-certified carbon offset program for businesses and individuals interested in lessening the environmental impact of air travel. The Lessen My Flight program provides high-quality offsets sourced from projects that have earned the Gold Standard, a globally recognized carbon offset certification standard endorsed by leading environmental groups including WWF International. In conjunction with conservation and switching to environmentally low-impact products and services, offsetting with trusted, verifiably additional offsets from Less can allow homes and organizations to reduce their carbon footprint, support sustainable development initiatives, and leave a lighter impact on the earth. The company has pledged to donate 10% of profits to organizations that support sustainability. Less and Lessen My Flight are trademarks of Less Emissions Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Bullfrog Power Inc.

site map I privacy