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started on 18/3/2007 18:51
A member of the Brighton CRAG is self employed and we aren’t sure whether to count mileage and air travel that is associated with her work. Just wondered if there is anyone in a similar situation? Our group has decided to count all public transport, transport to and from work but not any driving or flying that is done at work as we feel this should be counted as the businesses emissions, but what happens if you are the business? Renamed from ‘Footprinting’ – ja. Its still business emissionswritten on 18/3/2007 19:51
I agreee, its still business emissions in my opinion. Reason why? 1) What makes a self employed business any less a business than a non self employed one R not just transportwritten on 19/3/2007 22:32
In the Glasgow CRAG meeting notes you will see that we agreed to discount a homeworker’s household energy bills to recognise the fact that the rest of us get an energy subsidy from our employers who keep us cosy and lit in our workplaces all day! Problem is, this raises awkward questions as to how we could deal fairly with people who stay at home but don’t do work they pay themselves for. Students...written on 20/3/2007 10:29
Speaking as a perpetual student (well – not quite), I’ve decided to include all my travel in my calculations this year, although much of it I don’t have too much choice with. The placements I’m sent on have taken me to Middlesbrough and Gatwick so far (though no obligations to board a plane, luckily!). I just felt it’d be interesting to see what such a lifestyle ‘costs’ in carbon terms. Not much, thankfully, because I’ve been able to use public transport so far. However I completely agree with discounting business emissions – no real way of telling your boss that you can’t attend a meeting in Aberdeen because it clashes with your ethical sensibilities. Although it could aid your delegation skills. On the boundary between PCA and EU ETSwritten on 20/3/2007 10:55
Think Vey is spot on. The key test is ‘can you claim it on expenses’? Self employed businesses (and all other businesses) must fall outside a PCA scheme and and so CRAGs. As Vey suggests, let’s hope that Miliband wants to eventually extend EU ETS down to all sizes of businesses including self employed individuals. In the case of a self employed person working at home, I can imagine a that a person might buy carbon credits from the market, use them to partially pay the carbon debit from his home energy bill, and bill the carbon credit to to his business account. Andy, I think your home worker should only get his/her personal carbon allowance which I think is fair. If employers are keeping us warm, there is a case for them charging us for the carbon! Doubt if I’ll get away with that. Home and Office.written on 8/1/2008 12:42
copied from the big green challenge thread . david The division between work and home is dissolving. Many run businesses from home. Many companies and local authorities encourage home working. That presents a problem and an opportunity. The problem is that CRAG members are keen to have work related heating and electricity in their home for work use excluded from their carbon accounts (even if a real Personal Carbon Allowances scheme did not). This can have a big impact on someone’s carbon account and I think we need to look at ways to accurately calculate it rather than just assuming it’s a third or a half. For example on electricity, we might want to simply itemise electricity used for work e.g. the computer and subtract it from the household electricity consumption. The opportunity is that we want to encourage employers to allow employees to choose between working at the office or at home on the basis of carbon emissions. And we should provide that data. In the middle of winter we want people that live near by their work to choose to work in the office and in the summer we want people that live a long way off to work at home. If we can include the carbon emissions of the office building and the other office services then that would be great. Business and CRAGwritten on 8/1/2008 16:07
copied from the big green challenge thread . david. I think you could easily track your business emissions the same way you do personal emissions, but that they should be kept separate. For electricity and home fuel use: in the US if you work from home you write off a certain square footage of the house. This translates to a % of the house. You could write off that percent of your electricity. This isn’t exactly accurate. You could also write off based on the number of hours you work versus hours in the day. There is no perfect answer. For miles: In the US, if you drive for your business you can write it off your taxes. This is different from a work commute, which goes into personal stuff and therefore the CRAG. Generally people keep good records of business miles travelled and you would subtract this from the other miles on the vehicle. Business trips: If the trip is for business, even if you have fun, I think the trip should count as a business trip and not go into your personal CRAG. Since this obviously subtracts a lot from personal emissions, it would be fun to see someone set up a business CRAG model for typical work from home stuff. Obviously something with a supply chain is more complicated. Business and CRAGwritten on 8/1/2008 18:03
copied from the big green challenge thread . david. I wrote a comment and not think it got posted so will try again! I agree with Shannon both business and personal should be calculated separately and accounted for in that way,it is easy to do here in states as wfro tax purposes we have to claim everything for business and can be checked on at anytime! I live in a fairly large square footage space built for home/business to allow me as a mother to have the flexibility and freedom to be with my kids more and take time off when they are off. My basement a photographic Studio, which is 1.600sq all for business will now do a carbon foot print on myself again as the last one I did, had all mine mixed, home/business and had a shock! I am aware I am accountable for both but need to be realistic as both are for different usages and needs. And anyone in this kind of situation needs to be aware that both are separate, otherwise like me at first finding my first footprint calculating both together only left me feel low and hopeless! This dilemma and complication has set me behind on forming my Crag group here in GA USA,as many of my members or people interested are in the same position as me from my subdivision, But now I feel i will be able to help and not shock and turn them off with their total foot print. Thank you John Ackers and Shannon for helping understand and finding a way to separate and not giving up! and Shannon generally for all your time and encouragement and practical help! Sometimes trying to do this from USA, can feel isolating as there are some differences from you all in England and here in scale of homes spaces, standards etc,and if not careful ,we can be judged for over indulgence,but in reality each state is very different,what may be norm in maryland is very different to here in GA,average travel to work space here in GA is 1 hour long! and public transport is pracically non exictence here,and distances so spend out that its not parctacl or safe ot use a bike! o we have all got to understand the differences and suggest ideas and work together,i am on a mission now to get GA strong in CRAG! |
For those of us who are self
vey_straker
For those of us who are self employed in our CRAG – we are not counting business travel as part of our personal carbon emissions, unless it is a regular commute to and from an office. Look at your tax return – if you claim it as business expenses, its not personal emmissions. In the future world of Carbon Rations (hopefully) for all business, government and individuals, your business would have to be accountable for its own emmissions. In the meantime, as responsible folks we can always count our business’ footprint and try and reduce it, separately from our own personal footprint. Hope that helps.