We’re thrilled to announce that we’ve received our first-ever Climate Smart Certification in recognition of our efforts to become a carbon neutral organization.
In early 2017, LGM partnered with Vancouver-based social enterprise Climate Smart to measure our company-wide greenhouse gas emissions for our 2016 fiscal year.
What does it mean to be Climate Smart certified?
Climate Smart provides training, software and tools to support small and medium-sized organizations in reducing their greenhouse gas emissions, as well as their energy, transport, and waste-related costs.
Climate Smart conducted an audit of LGM’s practices to determine the company’s total carbon footprint. All three office locations (Vancouver, Oakville and Montreal) were evaluated and greenhouse gas emissions were measured by activity type.
In order to successfully achieve Climate Smart certification, LGM representatives worked with Climate Smart to create and implement a carbon reduction strategy based off of the results of the audit.
Charles Hotel, EVP, General Counsel, Legal, and Tomarra Walker, Manager, Corporate Services led the efforts on behalf of LGM
Our Action Plan
The audit revealed our three biggest emission sources: air travel, car travel and paper usage.
Using these results, we began strategizing how to authentically lower our carbon emissions by making significant process changes.
- Last year, we changed our default printer settings to print double sided; a simple change but one that cut our paper usage nearly in half. We also increased the recycled content of the paper we use.
- To target our car travel emissions, LGM made adjustments to our pre-existing OEM rebate program, which offers employees a cash rebate for buying an OEM partner vehicle. Now, we offer an additional rebate for employees who choose to purchase an OEM partner vehicle with a higher standard of fuel efficiency.
- We are reducing our employee air travel by investing in top-of-the-line AV equipment to encourage video conferencing among our employees across Canada.
What’s next?
LGM is proud of the great strides we have made in reducing the impact we have on our environment. We look forward to implementing more emission reduction strategies in the coming months.
We plan to continue our partnership with Climate Smart to demonstrate our ongoing efforts to authentically reduce our environmental footprint.
Curious to know more about our stance on carbon neutrality? Adam Hill, LGM founder and CEO, recently wrote a column in AutoJournal magazine on why dealers should strive to reduce their carbon output.
Check out LGM’s profile in the Climate Smart Certified Business Directory.
