As a capstone to the first year of its Environmental Sustainability Program (ESP), Universal Geomatics Solutions Corp. (UGS) is commissioning the planting of 2209 trees by Tree Canada in their National Greening Program to compensate for the emissions of its truck, ATV and snowmobile fleet, from January 1 to December 31, 2020. Canada is one of the world’s leaders when it comes to managing its forests sustainably and has one of the lowest rates of deforestation. UGS is proud to contribute to helping green areas in need of reforestation or afforestation.
UGS engaged the services of GHG Accounting Services Ltd., a firm which provides specialized greenhouse gas accounting, decarbonization and sustainability consulting, to assess the company’s total greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory for 2020. The total GHG emissions from UGS operations in 2020 was 448 t CO2e, of which 54% (243 t CO2e) was emitted by its truck, ATV and snowmobile fleet. The company is looking into solutions to reduce the total carbon emissions of its operations, however, when it comes to in ensuring its field crews get safely in and out of the remote sites they work, current vehicle technologies for the fleet are limited. Given the beneficial impact of trees on the environment, UGS determined it was able to reallocate certain overhead expenditures, to be better served at this time, in planting trees to compensate for its 2020 fleet emissions.
Over the past few years, market conditions and the needs of industry have inspired UGS to reimagine the way it does business. UGS has ramped up its focus on Environmental and Social Governance (ESG) in order to ensure it has a sustainable and thriving business model well into the future. The company’s ESP is a critical element for sustainability at UGS, as the program aims to minimize UGS’ carbon footprint, reduce its overall costs, and reallocate certain overhead expenditures in more impactful ways.
Majority female-owned, UGS is a high-performance geomatics firm, providing client-focused solutions in land surveying, construction support, mapping, and project management to a variety of industries, since 1986.