On 25 March 2008 the official signing of the agreement with the UT took place in the Municipal hall of Enschede. The working groups that are assessing the practical benefits now have the green light to prepare measures to streamline the process. One new aspect to this is the environmental and social policy of the UT. ITC is lacking a clearly defined policy in this respect. It is the intention of the directorate therefore to follow this UT policy immediately. To set a good example of modern corporate governance the ITC will adopt the Green Plan of the UT (“UT groen 2014”) in anticipation of the new strategic plan (2009-2014) as of 1 April 2008.
One aspect of this Green Plan is the eco-footprint (“groene voet”). All travel made by UT staff is conducted on a carbon neutral basis. This means that all emissions resulting from travels must be compensated. The UT is using tree planning schemes from Trees for Travel (www.treesfortravel.nl) to accomplish this.
Calculations for this are done on the basis of the airmiles accumulated by staff. To prevent the taxation of airmiles (loon in natura) the accountants have suggested a scheme by which these accumulated airmiles can be used to calculate a compensation basis. Payment of this compensation by staff will result in tax free airmiles. Below you find the calculations per department and per FTE. (full explanation will be given in the “uitvoeringsregeling groen vliegen” on the intranet (http://intranet/support/po/itcregulations/default.aspx)
Following this new policy MT’s will be asked to prepare a departmental policy to reduce their carbon footprint. The ITC-UT policy requires each department to reduce it’s footprint to below one half (0,5) “full earth” per FTE (see below). Compensation cost above this will be deducted from departmental budgets in 2009.
Compensation will be assessed per department and yearly improvements will be awarded. Emissions trading will not be accepted.
