Small food and drink businesses map their carbon footprint

Measuring carbon footprint for goods and services has primarily only been affordable to major companies, but the new free website offers small businesses the chance to calculate the impact their activities are having on the environment. The Sourcemap website is being trialled locally in Scotland as a result of a tie up between Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) and the research developers from the Media Lab of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Businesses involved include; Connage Farm Dairy, Macbeaths Butchers, The Lovat Hotel and Cairngorm Brewery. The software allows businesses to input information on where they get various commodities and then provides them with a calculation and a map which they can put on websites or marketing material. Caroline Gregory, of The Lovat, Loch Ness, has embedded environmental awareness into her everyday business activity. The hotel offers price reductions to guests travelling on public transport, walking or cycling to the hotel. Amongst other practices she uses degradable cleaning products, monitors & minimises waste daily as well as a revolutionary central heating & hot water system fuelled by a computerised biomass wood chip burner. She said: "Sourcemap is a unique tool to record and calculate carbon emissions generated by guests to the hotel. It is also a quirky way to map the supplier food chain from 'place to plate'. As an added extra to their efforts, The Lovat offers a carbon conscious donation through Trees for Life." Leo Bonnani, one of the researchers behind Sourcemap said: "We've been developing Sourcemap over the past two years, and other than some initial testing with food and drink companies in Boston, this is our first full study. Local sourcing in the US might mean 1,000 miles while here in the Highlands people are hesitant to get something from outwith Scotland. "As well as the environmental and marketing benefits there is a social network aspect, the site can offer useful market information on local supply chains. We have found particular interest in the food and drink sector and shared information on seasonal suppliers can be valuable," said Mr Bonnani.