Rick Crawford
I am thrilled to announce that Mike Pease Adventures has become California’s 1st Carbon Neutral Fly Fishing Guide! Mike is also an Orvis Endorsed Fly Fishing Guide and Founder of Feather River Fly Fishing School. If you are looking for a great guide, who is doing his part to protect what he loves, give Mike a call: 916-426-2082. I am proud to have worked with Mike to achieve Carbon Neutrality and below is the Mike Pease Adventures Carbon Footprint & Pathway to Carbon Neutrality:
Mike Pease Adventures Carbon Footprint and Pathway to Carbon Neutrality
Climate change is one of the greatest threats to fish and fisheries on the planet, and according to the Intergovernmental Panel in Climate Change (IPCC), the world would have to curb its carbon emissions by at least 49% of 2017 levels by the year 2030 and then achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 in order to avoid catastrophic climate change effects. “The mountains, rivers and lakes of Northern California are sacred to me. I have fished these waters with my father and grandfather since I was a boy. In order to protect this precious resource, we must all act to address the global warming crisis. Joining the Fly Fishing Climate Alliance to become carbon neutral is my first step.”
Carbon Neutral is defined by the World Resources Institute as “annual zero net anthropogenic (human caused or influenced CO2 emissions by a certain date. By definition, carbon neutrality means every ton of anthropogenic CO2 emitted is compensated with an equivalent amount of CO2 removed (e.g. via carbon sequestration)….”
Methodology
Mike Pease Adventures Carbon Footprint is based in the GHG Protocol Corporate Accounting Standard and is created as a reference for what we are including in your Carbon Footprint, which provides you with relevant, complete, consistent, transparent and accurate GHG inventory.
Spend-based method – Estimate emissions for goods and services by collecting data on the economic value of goods and services purchased and multiplying it by relevant secondary (e.g., industry average) emission factors (e.g., average emissions per monetary value of goods).
Organizational Boundary: We are taking a financial control approach, which assumes that your business has financial control over its operations and the ability to direct the financial and operating policies over these activities.
Operational Boundary: In order to set our operational boundaries, we must report our Scope 1 (direct emissions) and Scope 2 (indirect emissions) and are voluntarily reporting our Scope 3 (indirect emissions). For more information on see table below:
My Carbon Footprint
Below is a summary of my 2020 carbon footprint:
- SCOPE 1 GHG Emissions: 6.0 mtCO2e
- SCOPE 2 GHG Emissions: 0.5 mtCO2e
- SCOPE 3 GHG Emissions: 1.7 mtCO2e
- 1.1 Heating: I accounted for the GHG emissions associated with burning Kerosene and Liquified Petroleum Gas for my home and cabin.
- 2.1 Electricity: I accounted for the GHG emissions associated with my home.
- 3.1 Product Embodied Carbon: I accounted for the embodied carbon of the rods, apparel and fishing net purchased in 2020 for my guiding business.
- 3.2 Capital Goods: Not applicable.
- 3.3 Fuel & Energy Related Activities: Many of my clients are “local” but I accounted for the travel of my clients using an average round trip and as a standard baseline. Due to COVID all of my clients had to drive their own vehicles to the river, which I accounted for.
- 3.4 Inbound Shipments: Not material.
- 3.5 Waste Generated in Operations: I estimated the weight of my trash sent to the landfill & what was recycled to determine the amount of waste generated in my operations.
- 3.6 Business Travel: 2020 was a weird travel year due to COVID, so I did not have any business travel in 2020.
- 3.7 Employee Commuting: I did account for the miles associated with driving my vehicle to fish with clients, as well as any scouting trips.
- 3.9 Shipments to Customers: Not applicable.
That said, in following the GHG Protocol Corporate Standard, we did not include some of the recommended categories because they were deemed not applicable, such as: capital goods, upstream leased assets and end-of-life of sold products.
How We Achieved Carbon Neutrality
Before I explain how we went carbon neutral, I feel it’s also important to define carbon offsets:
Carbon Offsets: “An offset project is “a specific activity or set of activities intended to reduce GHG emissions, increase the storage of carbon, or enhance GHG removals from the atmosphere.” The project must be deemed additional; the resulting emissions reductions must be real, permanent, and verified; and credits (i.e, offsets) issued for verified emissions reductions must be enforceable.”
So, you are probably wondering, how did we go carbon neutral if our carbon footprint is 8.2 mtCO2e? In short, I purchased carbon offsets for our Scope 1, 2 & 3. I decided to purchase offsets from multiple projects around the world to increase our impact through choosing offsets that reduce greenhouse gas emissions, sequester carbon and protect wildlife through the nonprofit, Cool Effect. All of the carbon offset projects we selected reduce GHG emissions, are additional, are verified and permanent. I purchased carbon offsets from “Where Trees Save the Seas.” Below is an example of how the carbon offset projects I purchased reduce greenhouse gas emissions:
Where Trees Save the Seas: “Guatemala: The Conservation Coast, is in the Izabel Region, one of the top three most deforested areas in Guatemala. The Project is designed to solve the main drivers of deforestation in the area and to improve the lives of more than 3,000 local families. This project brings together more than 1,000 diverse landowners, municipalities, NGOs, and private and public organizations to protect 60,000 hectares of highly threatened forest. Over its lifetime, the project will sequester 6.1 million metric tons of CO2 emissions.”
I understand that the most important thing I can do as a business is to reduce my carbon footprint. I also know that carbon offsets are not the perfect solution, but feel strongly that we need lots of imperfect solutions if we are going to win the battle against climate change. I am simply just trying to do my part as a beneficiary of the resource.
Follow me on my sustainability journey as I strive to reduce my carbon footprint to protect what I love!
Mike Pease Adventures 2020 Carbon Footprint calculated with the Fly Fishing Climate Alliance Carbon Measurement Tool and the Report was produced by Emerger Strategies.