The Road to Copenhagen launched at Lowlands festival

Arnhem, 25 August 2009 - This weekend saw the starting shot for 'The Road to Copenhagen', a spectacular road trip through the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark on electric scooters, ending in Copenhagen. In this way Essent,who initiated the road trip, will be contributing to COP15, the international conference in Copenhagen where the climate agreements from Kyoto will be reassessed.

At the Lowlands festival, Dutch Minister of the Environment Jacqueline Cramer tried out one of The Road to Copenhagen’s electric scooters.

Nearly 200 young people put their names down for the trip at the Lowlands festival (one of the Netherlands’ biggest progressive music festivals) this weekend. During the road trip, which will be performed as a relay in December, the column of 50 to 100 young people will be working on a manifesto on sustainable solutions and the role that electric vehicles could play in this. The participants will be accompanied along the way by opinion leaders such as politicians, captains of industry and prominent artists and writers. Even critics will provide their input for the manifesto, which will be created interactively. In Copenhagen, the document will be offered to a number of prominent world leaders. You can find further information on The Road to Copenhagen at www.theroadtocopenhagen.com.

 

37,821 kg C02 offset

Essent’s Zero Zone, where Lowlands visitors could offset their CO2-footprint.

During Lowlands the festivalgoers were able to compensate for their presence (carbon footprint) onsite and this resulted in a total of 37,821 kg of C02 being offset. Essent will achieve this offsetting in two ‘Gold Standard Label’ projects in Turkey and China. Of the overall CO2 emissions caused by all the festivalgoers, this is still modest (nearly 1.5%), but it is the first step towards a completely carbon-neutral Lowlands.

Gold Standard

The Gold Standard is a hallmark for CDM (Clean Development Mechanism), JI (Joint Implementation), voluntary projects that produce renewable energy and energy efficiency projects. Bit by bit these projects are yielding significant benefits for sustainable development. Preference is being given to Gold Standard projects, both by a succession of government agencies and by private-sector buyers. The Gold Standard is an initiative of the WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature), SSN and Helio International. The Gold Standard for CDM projects came into force in 2003 and is being endorsed by more than 52 non-governmental organisations worldwide.

Essent speeds up electric transport

Essent is doing its best to speed up the introduction of electric transport. The company is making a substantial contribution to this sustainable development and is both promoting the technology and encouraging the market. At present, Essent is already putting a lot of electric lease and company cars into service in-house (the initial goal is 100 cars) and some 30 Essent employees are riding electric scooters. By putting more energy into our climate, Essent is contributing to the energy of tomorrow.

Published: 25 August 2009