As part of our ongoing sustainability journey, we have further committed to reducing our carbon emissions in line with the Paris Agreement by joining the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi). Our goal is to achieve a 50% reduction in carbon emissions by 2030 and a 90% reduction by 2050, informed by our 2019 baseline.
Why now?
Joining SBTi comes three years after becoming both carbon neutral and a certified B Corp, and nineteen years after achieving ISO 14001 accreditation.
Our journey to this point has focused on sustainably driving down emissions across all areas of the business. We’re now developing a Climate Transition Plan to meet the STBi goals, which focuses on further reducing carbon and then balancing our offset emissions in a way that promotes biodiversity and environmental restoration.
Close to home
To maximise the local impact of carbon balancing we’re working with 9Trees, a Community Interest Company (CIC) whose vision is “to tackle climate change by restoring woodland habitats, promoting biodiversity, creating jobs within the countryside, and connecting more people to nature.”
For our 2022 emissions (693 tonnes of CO2e), we’re planting 700 native UK-grown saplings—plus an additional 700 trees to balance emissions for 2023—on sites near four of our offices. These will be managed by experts for the next 50 years.
Last week, a group of volunteers from Stride Treglown spent a day with 9Trees to help plant new saplings, manage trees planted last year, and learn more about local wildlife and biodiverse habitats.
A global impact
Because 9Trees does not undertake formal accreditation for carbon balancing, instead preferring to spend the money on planting more trees, we are formally offsetting our carbon through two internationally accredited schemes: the United Nation Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and Gold Standard.
These initiatives support a range of global sustainable development projects, including biomass energy conservation in Malawi, improved cooking stoves in Malawi and Uganda, community boreholes in Eritrea, safe drinking water in Zambia, and renewable energy initiatives in India, Mongolia, Jamaica, and Brazil.
Sharing our environmental impact
Transparency is crucial in achieving these commitments, which is why we share annual Environmental Management Reports. Calculated independently by Future Leap, these cover our full Scope 1, 2, and 3 carbon emissions, including energy consumption, renewable energy production, water consumption, and waste, along with the carbon impact of business travel, commuting, working from home, and more recently, our supply chain.
We welcome anyone with interest to read our latest Environmental Report. Please get in touch with John Wright, Director for ESG if you have any questions.