Best Foot Forward

AMEC is a FTSE100 company providing services to the world’s energy, power and process industries. AMEC has developed a carbon management programme designed to reduce the carbon intensity of its global operations. BFF was approached and commissioned by AMEC to provide a carbon management tool to capture, target, manage and report greenhouse gas information from its many business units worldwide. BFF delivered AMEC’s requirements with a tailored version of BFF’s web-based Footprinter™ software. AMEC  Footprinter™ captures office and site footprints at the local level, and can aggregate results to the corporate level. Linzie Forrester, AMEC Sustainability Programme Manager, said: “AMEC Footprinter™ will be integral in reducing our carbon footprint. It is already giving insight into where our business has both carbon and cost hotspots”.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has a well-provisioned local energy supply, low cost energy and the highest per capita Ecological Footprint in the world.  To support emissions reductions efforts from the user-end, EWS-WWF commissioned Touchpoints Consulting and BFF to produce two calculators for public-engagement on energy use in households, with a goal of informing the public and encouraging engagement through their individual pledges for household emissions reduction. BFF produced a detailed model of energy use in UAE homes. This was incorporated into two web calculators, one for quick assessments, and a more detailed application showing reduction options and financial cost-saving opportunities. These calculators underpin the Heroes of the UAE campaign.

Ihobe is a publicly-owned company created to support the achievement of the Basque Country’s environmental policy targets. Its main activities include providing advice to industry and local authorities on issues such as waste, pollution and product innovation. Ihobe commissioned BFF to develop a footprinting tool, Ihobe k-aztarna Footprinter™, to facilitate action on climate change in the industrial sector of the Basque economy.  Footprinter allows companies to calculate the footprint of their organisation – or products they manufacture. Using the tool’s scenario function companies can also compare different carbon reduction actions.

In November 2008 the Welsh Assembly Government began a consultation on their new Sustainable Development Scheme One Wales: One Planet. As part of the consultation exercise three events were held to present the scheme and allow consultees to feed back their thoughts and opinions. As Wales' ecological footprint is one of the WAG's headline indicators of sustainable development , the Welsh Assembly commissioned BFF to footprint the consultation events using Event Footprinter. The lessons learned at each consultation influenced subsequent events and will influence decision-making by the Welsh Assembly when hosting future events.

The ARENA Network Carbon Reduction Program has been established to assist small-to-medium-sized enterprises across Northern Ireland with their energy consumption. ARENA Network—the environmental arm of Business in the Community— commissioned BFF to provide a footprinting application for use by SMEs engaged with the Program. We developed Footprinter™ NI and it is now freely available to users on the Program’s website.

We have worked with Pacific Interiors on a number of footprinting projects, and this tool presents some of our findings in a simple, engaging interface. The calculator helps users understand the environmental significance of refit frequencies, asset lifespans and operational efficiencies.

The government-funded Envirowise programme is dedicated to improving resource efficiency in UK businesses. BFF was commissioned to develop a simple tool to demonstrate the relationship between resource use, costs and carbon efficiency. The resulting 'Envirowise Indicator' can be used by visitors to their website.

FIRA is one of the leading trade associations for the furniture industry. BFF was commissioned to develop ‘Furniture Footprinter’ – an easy-to-use web-based tool which allows manufacturers to calculate the carbon and ecological footprints of their products. Furniture Footprinter covers the full lifecycle of products and can be used as a design-support tool.

We have completed numerous office footprints and wanted to develop a tool for clients to have in-house to enable ongoing footprint measurment. 'Office Footprinter' is the first completed product in the Footprinter series, and is being used by a number of clients for tracking Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions. Office Footprinter is a subscription-based model although a free trial version is available on the dedicated Footprinter website.