A
Carbon Footprint is a measure of the impact human activities
have on the environment in terms of the amount of green
house gases produced. For CAA, this would include company
air travel, cars, and all forms of energy consumption.
This “Footprint” can be
offset by doing things to restore of the environment,
and The CAA Foundation has brought the company to carbon
neutrality through the help of Envirotrade in Mozambique.
This has been done by planting
thousands of trees, digging wells, and increasing African
crop yields through the utilization of new fertilizers.
Envirotrade has made massive
strides since CAA has become involved, and they have
been able to purchase new tools, firefighting equipment
to control wildfires, transport vehicles, and a new
tractor.
There have been many improvements
made, but the fact that now over 300 people in rural
Mozambique have employment – is by far one of the greatest
accomplishments.
In December 2006, the CAA
Foundation decided to make it personal and partnered
with Global Colors - creating a volunteer experience
for CAA employees to travel to Mozambique and work alongside
Envirotrade.
The
volunteers were taken on a tour of the entire project,
learned about each aspect of the organization, and were
then put to work!
Reforestation is central
to CAA's carbon neutrality, and the volunteers worked
directly in the fields to further that goal.
While
in the Gorongosa National Forest, the volunteers spent
days clearing the ground using local hand tools, dug
holes to place the trees, and hauled in hundreds of
trees to the work site - where they were all planted
by hand.
They also worked with the
local craftsmen to build and assemble all the components
of a new well to provide clean drinking water for this
entire community.
They used hand tooled planks to make a lid to keep out
pollutants, hauled in the supplies, built and covered
the well, and installed a system to bring water to the
surface.
Of the many accomplishments
– all were in agreement that spending time with the
locals was by far the highlight, and hopefully the bridges
that were built will create a partnership that will
only grow and develop.
With this experience, we
hope to bring about greater awareness, expand our responsibility
to the environment, and enable further opportunity.
