Australian Rugby Union today announced the Qantas Wallabies, in partnership with Qantas, Lexus and the Carbon Trade Exchange, will offset their entire carbon footprint while on their New Zealand campaign to become the number one Rugby team in the world.
The Qantas Wallabies are the first Rugby team to announce a plan to be more environmentally friendly and have received strong support from their long term naming rights partner Qantas and Lexus who both have strong environmental commitments.
The ‘Qantas Wallabies Go Green’ campaign will see the Qantas Wallabies flights offset through the Qantas Carbon Offset Program while Lexus will offset all ground transport and the Carbon Trade Exchange will offset the remaining footprint for the whole touring party.
ARU Managing Director and CEO, John O’Neill said he was pleased to team up with ARU and Wallabies partners Qantas and Lexus to deliver an improved environmental outcome.
“As a major international sporting team it is important that we do our bit in caring for the environment,” Mr O’Neill said.
“Thanks to the support from our partners Qantas and Lexus as well as the Carbon Trade Exchange we are able to deliver a good environmentally responsible outcome while the team is away in New Zealand.
“Hopefully our decision to work with our partners to offset the teams carbon footprint will act as encouragement for other teams to follow suit.”
All carbon offsets used to offset the Qantas Wallabies and team management carbon footprint will be 'NCOS compliant' (approved by the Australian Government's National Carbon Offset Standard).
Flights will be offset through Qantas's Carbon Offset Program that is regularly independently verified under its Australian Government National Carbon Offset Standard - Carbon Neutral certification.
Carbon offset credits required for the ground transport will be purchased by Lexus through the Carbon Trade Exchange.
EcoView will be responsible for the emissions footprint measurement using CarbonView and will provide independent verification that the required carbon offsets have been purchased and retired on a public carbon offset registry within 12 months of the Wallabies' campaign.
Carbon offset credits are produced by renewable energy projects and made available by companies like the Carbon Trade Exchange to purchase under compliance requirements or voluntary purposes.
A carbon offset credit is equivalent to one ton of carbon dioxide removed from the planet’s atmosphere. The money paid for each credit goes to funding renewable energy projects.
