Our 2019 Carbon Footprint is now complete and it shows continued reductions

01.04.2020

Over the last weeks we’ve been working out what our impact was for the previous year for incorporating into our annual GRI report. For the third year in a row, coinciding with the implementation of our science-based targets, we have reduced our emissions ahead of our targeted trajectory and our footprint is now down to 107 tonnes of CO₂ equivalent (69 when taking into account renewables). That’s an 11% reduction since last year and 50% since 2016, and the good news is that this doesn’t even include the effects of more radical policies which we implemented at the very end of last year.

The key takeaways are that as the grid decarbonises, energy is reducing its proportion of our footprint (we do procure all renewable energy, but don’t count that for targets). Business travel is still a big category, but that will hopefully reduce with our new policies that dramatically reduce the number of flights.

Interestingly “staff commute” is a category that many don’t include in their footprint, but which is one of the official GHG Scope 3 categories that should be reported. We have often ignored this in considerations of how we could reduce our office footprint, as most of our staff live locally and take public transport and we didn’t think that we could improve things further. Something that we have all learned over the last few weeks is that commuting is absolutely within the control of a business like ours. Obviously letting people work from home in winter may lead to more emissions from energy usage in their homes, but it’s something worth looking into.

During the current pandemic, while our focus is on keeping staff and the public safe and healthy whilst delivering for clients, we’re going to be using this period of reflection where our offices are closed to figure out what a much more positive and even more radical business as usual should look like when we return.

If you're interested in finding out more on how to do this, subscribe to our bi-monthly newsletter Sustainability News Bites to receive our insights directly into your inbox!

Our latest edition can be read here: https://mailchi.mp/bennettsassociates/sustainability-newsbites-01-04-2020