TOP ESTONIAN ENTERPRISES

Photo: Toomas Tuul
KRISTINA ÕLLEK, RICHARD PIKMETS, MARGUS POTISEPP, SANDER KAUR
But this is not as simple as it seems. The company
is not only enabling to calculate the natural
damage of your vital functions, but also
to cover this. Margus Potisepp says that the
data for preparing the calculator of ecological
footprint were collected from the international
sources of reference such as Greenhouse Gas
Protocol and by consulting with the organisations
such as DEFRA (UK Department for Environment,
Food and Rural Affairs), EIA
(Energy Information Administration) and others,
also by communicating with the makers
of calculators originating from Great Britain
and USA.
The calculator has been adjusted for the Estonians
with the assistance of Eesti Energia and
State Forest Management Centre (RMK). It was
learned for example from Eesti Energia, how
much carbon dioxide is emerging in burning the
oil shale for the production of one kWh electricity,
presuming that most of the Estonian electricity
comes from the burning of oil shale. The
calculator is also completed in cooperation with
the British Embassy and Tartu University.
According to the calculator of the website of Roheline
Jälg which is not 100 percent accurate,
but should just give a simple image, the writer
of this story - typical city resident - would create
15.34 tons of carbon dioxide a year with its consumption.
77 trees need to be planted for the
neutralisation of this quantity. In average each
Estonian should plant about 20 trees in the
opinion of the company.
The author of the story has covered purely accidentally
the footprint this year, as he planted 85
fir plants to its home garden. Roheline Jälg recommends
to the ones who have not planted or
cannot plant the trees to decrease the consumption
or pay little money and let the others
plant. RMK separated the land unit for that purpose
in Harjumaa in Kose rural municipality.
The planting of one tree costs 20 kroons including
the cost of the plant, preparation of the land
unit, post-planting maintenance and labour and
transport costs. Ten percent of the price of the
tree goes to the fund which finances the next
environmental projects started by the student
company.
Potisepp says that if to consider the current
participation in the fairs and exhibitions, 700
persons have calculated their CO2 footprint
through the company. Approximately 3000 persons
are added to it who have used the calculator
at the website of the company. More than
1000 people have neutralised their CO2 footprint,
including among them many foreigners –
Germans, Americans, Dutch, Norwegians, Austrians
etc.
The young people have set the planting of 100 000
trees as the objective of the three years which
neutralises 20 000 tons of carbon dioxide. The
separate mission is also the increase of environmental
awareness and changing of consumption
habits to hinder the ungovernable waste of resources,
the environmental damages incurring
from it and the warming up of climate which are
all the keywords of the current society.
Roheline Jälg was chosen the best student company
this year in the competition of 14 Estonian
student companies. The company of Toila Gymnasium
Aktsioon won the second place which
provided the service of active holiday. Roheline
Jälg won the competition of the European student
companies in the competition of even 32
companies. The second place went to Switzerland
and the third to Germany. Junior Achievement
Development Fund deals with the
preparation of the students for entrepreneurship.
Roheline Jälg is officially acting as the non-profit
organisation. One of its founders – Kristina Õllek
graduated this year from the gymnasium and entered
to the Estonian Art Academy. The remaining
team consists of the school-leavers of the
secondary school no. 21. Potisepp dreams about
the possibility to go to Great Britain to study the
power engineering, the others are still thinking
about their choices. •
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