We recently finished calculating our carbon footprint, which tells us how much carbon we use as an organisation in a year. This helps to give us an idea of the impact we’re having on the planet.
Our total carbon usage for 2022-23 is 33,938 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e), which is a decrease of 169 tonnes from last year!
We have achieved this by reducing our carbon footprint in areas such as
- fleet,
- business travel,
- gas and electricity emissions, and
- commuting.
Although there have been some increases in emissions from water, waste, and procured goods and services, we’ve still managed to make improvements. One reason for this is the impact of COVID-19, which meant more of our colleagues worked from home, reducing the amount of carbon emissions from commuting.
Even though we can only estimate the carbon emissions from colleagues working from home, we know it’s less than when everyone was commuting daily.
We have also improved the way we collect and record data, which may make the data appear worse than it is. For example, our waste data has gone up from 9 tCO2e to 83 tCO2e, but that’s not because we’ve significantly increased our waste. It’s simply because we’re now doing a better job of tracking and recording it.
While most of the data we used is wholly accurate, a small portion is an estimate. But, as we continue our journey to reduce our carbon footprint, we’re moving away from estimates and collecting more precise data.
The Safe and Happy Sustainable Future Strategy 2020-2027 guides all of our actions and will help us reach our goal of being carbon neutral by 2030. Read the strategy here.