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Beyond net zero: Eden's journey

We’re ‘walking the talk’, transforming our operating systems to eradicate emissions from energy and transport and designing our future Eden Projects to be working exemplars of regenerative transformation.

Eden's climate positive strategy

We’ve joined the Race to Zero, through our partners Planet Mark, pledging to become a climate positive organisation by 2030.

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The journey to net zero and beyond

Globally we need to get emissions from 51 billion tonnes (of CO2 equivalents) a year to ZERO.

Eden aims to go from 9,671 tonnes of CO2 equivalents emissions (2019/20) to beyond zero by 2030.

Graphic

Scales showing Eden's progress in reaching carbon positive

Today

The things we need to work on:

  • Fuels: We heat our Biomes (and cook our food) using fossil fuels. By 2022/23 we will heat our Biomes using sustainable geothermal heat produced onsite.
  • Goods and services: Incoming goods and services account for a major share of our emissions as do staff commutes and business travel.
  • Visitor travel: Most visitors currently come in combustion engine cars. We’re working to provide green travel solutions and expand our electric vehicle charging service.
  • Other: 70% of our waste is recycled. Over two thirds of our irrigation and loo flushing water is recycled rainwater. However, processing waste and water still currently contributes to our emissions.

Today

2030 and beyond

By 2030 we aim to have cut visitor travel emissions by 55% (with green travel options and electric vehicle charging). We will continue to reduce emissions from external goods and service and travel. 

Unavoidable emissions will be ‘inset’ through our own verified carbon removals; nature-based solutions that absorb CO2 and lock it away – e.g. creating woodlands, meadows and wetlands.

Eden's carbon footprint today

Eden's carbon footprint today

To help us understand and tackle our carbon emissions, we've divided them into three areas:

Pie chart showing Eden's carbon emissions
  1. Direct (accounts for 14% of our carbon emissions): Heating, cooling, moving around
  2. Indirect (11%): Bought electricity
  3. External (75%): Buying in food, goods, materials (includes the CO2 produced in making and transporting things), travel (staff, visitors, suppliers) and building things

Eden’s decarbonisation pathway

We’re going climate positive by 2030, aiming to reduce operational emissions by 10% a year: drawing down CO2 using nature-based solutions, monitoring and reducing site emissions and tackling the ‘biggie’: the external emissions.

How?

We’re moving towards a low carbon, circular model using:

How

CO₂ levels today

The global level of carbon dioxide and its rate of increase are two of the most important factors in deciding the future of our civilisation and life on Earth. The widget below exists to make these two ideas readily available to anyone in the world, be they a farmer, a lawyer, a child or a retiree.

Widget credits

Widget credits

This project is led by Matthew Shribman with the support of Cambridge Zero / University of Cambridge.

Developers: Chris Butterworth, Richard Coates, Rowland Williams, Keith Alexander, Erika Antiche Garzón, Max Palmer

Designers: Bella Soares, Chris Butterworth

Special thanks: Gary Fearnall

The widget is endorsed by the Grantham Institute, the 2 Degrees Institute, Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego and Reading University’s Department of Meteorology.

The original report, with more details about the widget, its ideation, and suggestions for further communication, is available here.