Jacob’s Cafe, a small Changi Village-based restaurant which opened in 2000, is the first participant in Asia Carbon Global’s Carbon Nil programme, making it Singapore’s first SME to become carbon neutral. For the past six months, Mr. Lim Tow Soon, Jacob’s Cafe’s proprietor and General Manager, has been working with ACG and with AUM Business Creation’s Mr. Per Dahlen to help make real Asia’s first Carbon Neutral programme for individuals, retail enterprises, and small- and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs).
For the first time in Singapore, Carbon Neutrality will no longer be limited to larger corporations. The new Carbon Nil platform, which Asia Carbon Global launched last year with UNFCCC-approved verifier TUV Nord, provides any individual, retailer, or SME the opportunity to address their own environmental impacts and discharge these responsibilities without undertaking any large investments or complex administrative solutions.
In the case of Jacob’s Cafe, its relevant greenhouse gas (GHG) emission sources for the year 2007 were assessed and measured by a team of CDM experts. This carbon footprint was then evaluated and verified by TUV-Nord, and a certification issued to confirm the emissions calculations. Through Carbon Nil, Jacob’s Cafe then purchased the equivalent voluntary emissions reductions (VERs) issued from green projects in the region, and then used these to offset its carbon footprint. Employing Asia Carbon’s Registry technology, the VERs are properly tagged and monitored so that they are permanently retired from the system.
Jacob’s Cafe intends to provide its clients with the opportunity to share in this programme by including a “carbon neutral charge” of 0.75% of the total bill. Simply put, each $100 spent in Jacob’s Cafe will mean an additional 0.75 cents for a carbon neutral dinner at the restaurant.
It is hoped that this demonstration showing how one’s carbon footprint can be truly offset with real and effective steps.
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