We are so proud to have supported and empowered Airway Medical to run a Carbon Neutral Project, helping them achieve their mission of saving lives sustainably.
A Carbon Neutral Project is one where the carbon emissions resulting from the project are balanced by carbon being absorbed from the atmosphere in a carbon sink. A carbon sink is anything that absorbs more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than it releases, for example, a forest or an ocean.
Airway Medical is a Bristol-based start-up on a mission to save lives sustainably by bringing a new, portable airway suction device to the market. In 2023, they were awarded an NHS funded Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) grant to develop a prototype of a hand held airway suction device from medical grade biopolymers – a world first.
Sustainability is at the heart of everything Airway Medical does. Founder, Simon Hall, decided to take the opportunity to live Airway Medical’s values by engaging IEC to run the multi-stakeholder project as a Carbon Neutral Project.
“We are committed to ‘Saving Lives Sustainably’. This not only includes producing the world’s first sustainable medical device, but also ensuring we do so with minimal impact from the companies business activities. Innovative Energy have developed tools and independent oversight to manage the entire process for us.”
We ensured the Project was Carbon Neutral using our 5-step process:
We kicked the project off with Sustainability Training for the whole project team and provided monthly Sustainability Moment’s at the start every team meeting.
All stakeholder’s recorded their monthly emissions generating activities using our bespoke Emissions Tracking Tool. We provided training to ensure project participants understood what they were recording and why. Ongoing monitoring ensured high quality data as we were able to quickly identify anomalies and gaps.
We analysed the Emissions Tracking Tool to generate emissions reducing tips which we shared with stakeholders every month and provided 1-2-1 training sessions throughout the project.
At the end of the six month project, we calculated the total Project Footprint to be 1.7 tonnes CO2e, equivalent to 269 train journeys from Bristol to London!
We worked with Simon to identify a reputable source of Carbon Offsets that aligned with his values.
As well as helping Airway Medical live their values, running this project as Carbon Neutral demonstrated alignment with the 2040 Net Zero Goal of their key target client: the NHS.
Demonstrating alignment to your buyers’ Sustainability Goals is common part of the procurement process for public bodies, including the NHS, local and national government as well as for private companies as varied as Tesco and Sky.
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