The Peruvian company donates "carbon credits" that will make it possible for the Lima 2019 Pan American Games to achieve a Zero Carbon Footprint.
Nearly seven thousand athletes from more than 40 countries will compete in 62 sports disciplines over 19 days at the Lima 2019 Pan American Games.
It is the largest sporting event on the continent. Consequently, the mega event will be of enormous importance for Peru's economy. Thousands of visitors will come from all over the Americas and the world to watch the competitions.
CARBON FOOTPRINT
The mobilization by air and land of these thousands of people from their places of origin to Peru and Lima -the air and vehicle travel to the sporting events, even the use of cell phones- will generate what environmentalists call a "carbon footprint".
This is measurable in thousands of tons of carbon dioxide (CO2), which contribute to global warming.
It is estimated that the mega-event of the Lima 2019 Pan American Games will generate a "carbon footprint" of 370,000 tons of CO2.
BONUS
A few years ago, the international community established, through various organizations, an effective way to combat these "greenhouse gases" that aggravate global warming by creating a kind of blanket or layer around the planet that prevents trapped heat from escaping the earth's atmosphere, thus contributing to a permanent increase in the earth's temperature.
To combat this situation, countries decided to create a way to reward nations and companies that contribute to compensate with direct actions the "carbon footprint" they generate. The way to reward them was to give them a so-called "carbon credit", which has a price on the international market.
In this way, we seek to progressively reach the standard established by the UN known as Zero Carbon Footprint or Neutral Footprint.
The measurement of the "carbon footprint" is carried out by an international company, so that the issuance of credits is strictly verified and certified. The amount of carbon credits held by a company versus the size of the carbon footprint it produces is thus the quantified verification of the extent to which that company or that country contributes to the goal of achieving a Zero Carbon Footprint globally.
PETRAMAS
In this sense, the Peruvian company Petramás will mark a historic milestone by making it possible for the "carbon footprint" of the Lima 2019 Pan American Games to be neutralized in its entirety and be equivalent to zero.
Petramás achieves this by donating the carbon credits it has obtained from its industrial operation to the Pan American Games. "For us it will be an honor to contribute the 370 thousand carbon credits needed to neutralize the Pan American's carbon footprint," announced Jorge Zegarra, CEO of Petramás.
METHANE GAS
How does Petramás generate the bonds it will donate to the Pan American Games? It is a company dedicated to the processing of solid waste from the city of Lima. This process is what leads it to obtain the carbon credits.
"These carbon credits are obtained through our Clean Development Mechanism project, certified by the UN, which is carried out in two landfill plants that the company owns in Lima and Callao," explains Zegarra.
"The project processes the production of methane gas, the main greenhouse gas, which is produced by the natural decomposition of more than eight thousand tons of solid waste per day," he says. In fact, the city of Lima and Callao generate 10,000 tons of solid waste daily. The Petramás landfills in Lima and Callao receive 8,000 of these 10,000 tons daily, 80% of the total. he company itself collects some 1,500 of these 8,000 tons of solid waste daily from a number of districts in Lima and Callao, using a fleet of 300 collection trucks that are then decontaminated every day at the company's plant in the industrial city of Huachipa, near the Ramiro Prialé highway.
ELECTRICITY
The way the company uses methane gas to neutralize its own carbon footprint is by using it to produce electricity through large generators powered by the combustion of the gas.
The electricity produced feeds the industrial city of Huachipa, and the balance is fed into the national grid through the power company already installed in Huachipa. The excess methane gas is burned in a tall chimney, according to strict Kyoto Protocol environmental standards.
For this exemplary process certified by the UN, Petramás has obtained in return the "carbon credits" that it is donating today so that the Lima 2019 Pan American Games can proudly say that they have achieved a Zero Carbon Footprint. This is how this 100% Peruvian company contributes not only to the Lima Pan American Games, but also to the fight for environmental decontamination and the worldwide crusade against global warming.
