Our road to a more sustainable operation. As part of our wider commitment to ESG we have a plan in place and have started to reduce our carbon emissions.
Where to start?
We started seriously thinking about this issue in 2021. We were updating our business plan and wanted to include within it, targets on reducing our carbon emissions. Hence, we took the plunge and committed to a self-imposed target of becoming carbon neutral by the end of 2024. We did not have enough information to commit to a Net Zero target quite yet, as we needed to do more research to understand what was realistically possible.
Electric cars
We understood our consultants car use was contributing heavily to our carbon footprint. It was company policy they were paid an allowance to use their own cars for work. After some internal debate, we decided to overhaul this policy and provide the majority of our consultants with fully electric cars. These were ordered in late 2021 for delivery March 2022. However, the wiring looms for the VW iD3s we ordered, were made in Ukraine and, as of the 24th Feb 2022, they were at war with Russia. We had to make a last-minute switch of supplier and, the cars eventually arrived in the middle of 2022.
More than a helping hand.
Several people we spoke to about the carbon reduction journey said that, when it comes to the market of available options ‘it’s a jungle out there’. And, one that is difficult to navigate without experienced guidance. But as luck would have it one of our key clients Grosvenor, had the foresight to link up with Heart of the City [HoTC] and offer their supply chain of SMEs a mentoring program for exactly this. We gratefully signed up with haste in the first quarter of 2022!
Starting our journey
Getting the ball rolling is usually the hardest part. Figuring out where to start, what maths needs to be done and how we know what we’re doing is actually correct was a difficult first step to make. Taking into consideration everything that we have already implemented we carried out an Action Plan Survey, given to us by HotC. This helped us identify ‘quick wins’ where there were fast solutions to cutting our carbon footprint or changing little everyday tasks to make our company more environmentally friendly. Some of these tasks were as simple as removing under the desk bins and making sure the heating wasn’t still on after everyone had left the office.
Crunching the numbers.
With the help of HoTC, we completed training on modules which firstly, helped us understand environmental terms and language. It then went on to show us how to work out our carbon emissions. This involved guidance in using the appropriate and established calculator tools for measuring the various areas and, ultimately allowed use to determine our baseline year for carbon emissions.
Pulling it all together
Once we understood what our carbon emissions were, we needed to identify our long-term goal of reducing these. We committed to reduce our carbon emissions by over 40% by 2030. We then submitted our plans and target for approval by Science Based Targets. In November 2022 our plans and target were approved.
Looking ahead!
We have our two targets of firstly, becoming carbon neutral by the end of 2024 and secondly, reducing our carbon emissions by 42% by 2030. Now the real work begins!
Most recently we have swopped out our Director’s cars for fully electric ones. We are presently looking at offsetting – another jungle of information!
We will keep you all updated on our journey on social media and right here.
Where to start with offsetting carbon emissions?
Well, we did investigate this and, have now assessed various options for offsetting our carbon emissions. The good news is that we have concluded we can accelerate our journey to becoming carbon neutral. Instead of doing this by the end of 2024, we plan to be carbon neutral by the end of Q2 2023.
We will let you know when we have got there.
