Premier Farnell, in partnership with NGO United Bank of Carbon, donates two solar-powered medicine fridges to the village of Tongwe in Tanzania

It has been estimated that in the next 24 hours, 33,000 hectares of rainforest will be destroyed, releasing as much CO2 into the atmosphere as 8 million people flying from London to New York. De-forestation accounts for 15% of global Green House Gas (GHG) emissions per year, transport and industry account for 14% each and air travel for only 3%, demonstrating the size of the damage caused by de-forestation.



In February 2011, Premier Farnell began a partnership with UBoC by donating two solar-powered medicine fridges to the village of Tongwe in Tanzania, an area that is home to a rich diversity of biology, including significant chimpanzee habitats.



“Premier Farnell is investing in the prevention of de-forestation promoting sustainable technologies that deliver tangible benefits to rain forest communities that would otherwise have to do without, or use polluting fossil fuel equivalents,” said Steven Webb, Group Company Secretary of Premier Farnell. “This demonstrates our commitment to a sustainable business strategy and to our “Trust Agenda”.”



In 2010 Premier Farnell was named as the highest ranking FTSE 250 company distributing electronic design engineering components to design engineers in the new FTSE CDP Carbon Strategy 350 Index and was awarded the Carbon Trust Standard (CTS) for measuring, managing and reducing its carbon footprint for its UK-based operations and committing to further reductions year on year. The company has already reduced its global carbon footprint by 20% within a period of three years.