Our Greenhouse Gas Management

While Greenomics has built its business on sustainable principles and as such has a minimal footprint, we still have to travel regionally and internationally. As such, there are times when we have no option other than to get on a plane or take some other form of transport that creates greenhouse gases.

So, we have to offset our Greenhouse Gas emissions and have chosen a two hectare plot in the Czech Republic (20,000 m2), on a property where no one can remember it as forest. After the Second World War it had been used as a field for bean and potato crops as mandated by the Central Planning Committee of the communist government that nationalized all the land. In the 1970s to the early1990s it was used as a pasture for sheep by a state cooperative which was dissolved after the velvet revolution and was privatized in 2007. The new owners chose to work with the land’s natural attributes, conducted research and realized that even if it isn’t ideal for building a house (sloped, hard to access in the winter) it was great for trees. As such, in 2010, 1005 apple trees of mixed species were planted.

There are several positive results of this reversion to the natural state such as the trees absorbing approximately 200 tonnes of GHGs over 20 years. It will also provide approximately 10 tonnes of apples / year and provide local employment for 3-4 people during harvest. There are other potential upswings such as the development of secondary cottage industries making apple products such as jellies, butter, and cider. The orchard will also help the local environment through reduction in soil erosion. The new owners recognize their efforts are small scale and more of a hobby than money machine. They view it as a solar power plant – meaning it generates the only energy people really need – calories in food.

Greenomics chose to support this endeavour as our offset solution because we have to walk-the-talk, we are global thinkers, and the new land owner, Jan Kozderka, also does a lot of our IT work – so there is an established trust based on our working relationship. We did not just pay for the carbon to go “away”. We can point to where our contribution was made and we have a much more “fruitful” story.

“Building an apple orchard is a long term investment with many variables that are unsure by their very nature. The support of Greenomics has helped to alleviate the risk and bridge the gap between planting and harvesting. Greenomics is a company that practices what it preaches and I’m grateful for the hope that cooperation between consulting and agriculture is possible.”

Jan Kozderka, Owner Operator