| BRIDGEHAMPTON, NY -- Hamptons Luxury Homes today announced that it has offset 100% of the greenhouse gas emissions generated by the company and all of its subsidiaries, including Telemark, Inc. The announcement was made by Frank Dalene, Vice President and CFO of Hamptons Luxury Homes.
"We strongly believe that becoming carbon neutral is extremely important for our business and is a step in improving our environment," said Dalene, who has been a leader in the green building movement in the Hamptons, where his firm is located. Dalene is the co-founder of the Hamptons Green Alliance (www.hamptonsgreenalliance.org) and the developer of a unique methodology, The International Carbon Equivalent Mechanism Attributed to Neutrality (ICEMAN) that can calculate and index the carbon neutrality associated with the production of materials products and buildings by the application of sciences established as a result of the Kyoto Protocol, the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, and other similar efforts.
Eric Taub, Managing Partner of Verus Carbon Neutral, a firm that conducts the audits and then provides carbon offsets to its clients, said: "Hamptons Luxury Homes is a true environmental leader. Not only have they offset their entire carbon footprint, but they have been able to manage their carbon emissions to levels below that of average businesses of their size and scope."
Hamptons Luxury Homes retained Verus to conduct an audit of its business and to calculate the Carbon Dioxide Equivalent (CO2e) footprint of the company and its subsidiaries. Based on the information that the company provided to Verus Carbon Neutral, the annual CO2e footprint for Hamptons Luxury Homes is 156 metric tons. Forty-seven percent of the emissions came from energy usage, which was 73 metric tons. The electricity contribution of 31 metric tons was below the average for a building the size of Hamptons' corporate headquarters, however, the heating oil footprint was slightly greater than average at 42 metric tons.
Transportation, at 72 metric tons, was 46 percent of the total Carbon Emissions created. This reflects the demands of Hamptons Luxury Homes' business and is considered a standard level given the need for larger vehicles in the sector. The Verus report noted that Hamptons Luxury Homes has managed to keep its travel footprint low and that waste is a very reasonable nine metric tons for a business of Hamptons Luxury Homes' size.
Hamptons Luxury Homes then purchased 156 metric tons of CO2e offsets, through Verus, from the Chicago Climate Exchange, in effect offsetting 100% of their carbon dioxide emissions and becoming carbon neutral. "We elected to do this through the purchase of offsets from an agricultural methane project," said Dalene. "This project uses methane to produce electricity, which supports an approximately 1,000-head dairy farm. Excess electricity is sold to the local utility."
Dalene said that methane (CH4) has 21 times the impact than that of CO2 as a greenhouse gas. "We wanted to have the greatest impact by selecting an offset project which reduced one of the worst greenhouse gases and this was a very effective way to do it," he said.
"It is very important that our company leads by example and becomes carbon neutral," said Dalene, "Totally offsetting our greenhouse gas emissions directly and scientifically defines our company as being green." Hamptons Luxury Homes continues to be at the forefront of green building in the New York area. Its subsidiary, Telemark, Inc. is one of the founding companies of the Hamptons Green Alliance.
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