Lenovo extends 'carbon offset' service to customers in India, Asia Pacific

Lenovo has launched its carbon dioxide (CO2) Offset Services in India, which allows users to compensate for harmful carbon emissions from the manufacture, shipping and use of select Lenovo products for up to five years, at the point of purchase. The CO2 Offset Services will allow Lenovo's customers to choose from a range of projects overseen by the United Nations and ClimeCo, a producer of voluntary carbon credits in the US. In the Asia Pacific region, initiatives include a biomass energy project that generates electricity from a sugar mill, a wind energy project that generates clean and renewable energy, and a project that offers waste disposal in a safe and clean manner that generates renewable energy while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.Users will reportedly get a certificate confirming the offset emissions for each product's serial number, issued with the purchase. An official certifying badge for each product will also be given. The CO2 Offset Services is an attempt to meet customers’ desire for eco-transparency in their purchases. The service is among the first customer-facing offsets for personal products, to help people better understand their carbon footprints.[caption id="attachment_9351101" align="alignnone" width="1280"]

The new CO2 offset service works by factoring in emissions produced from the manufacture and shipping of each individual product, as well as those for an estimated typical five years of usage. Image: Lenovo[/caption]Lenovo is also working to allow business customers to retrospectively offset purchases made in the last three years, where data is available. The service was first to Lenovo customers in Europe, and later extended to those in the Asia Pacific region. Over 26,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents have already been offset by the company's customers globally.A glimpse of how the service works can be seen in a recent collaboration with a buyer in Germany, where Lenovo worked with insurance company LVM Versicherung to supply 4,500 ThinkVision P27h-20 monitors and 4,000 new ThinkPad X1 Yoga laptops via Lenovo’s CO2 Offset Services. To lessen carbon emissions from shipping, the order was delivered from one of Lenovo’s global manufacturing sites in China via train instead of an airplane. This service, the company said, not only helped the company in meeting targets but also promoted a sense of corporate purpose that contributed to the wider sustainability commitments and ethos.