Last week, we received the great news that our Planet Mark certification had come through!
This is the third year we’ve undergone the process of measuring and reporting on our business emissions, and it’s something that's essential to any business serious about sustainability.
Businesses have a huge role to play in the reduction of global emissions – currently they are responsible for an estimated 18% of all UK GHG emissions. Many companies have no idea how much CO2e they emit or where it comes from, which naturally means they have no idea how to start reducing it. That’s why it’s essential to get started as soon as possible, and the numerous companies out there offering solutions means there’s little excuse.
All you need to do is gather some information that you should already have. If you’re on a smaller budget, you could start with your Scope 1 and 2 emissions, which are your direct emissions from company operations, and indirect energy emissions. That basically means you’ll need to access things like your office or home working electricity and gas bills, evidence of your business travel (tickets, receipts, or expenses claims), and a rough estimate of your waste. When we say rough, we mean it! We literally weighed a bag of recycling and one of landfill and then extrapolated for the year.
Like last year, we got the whole (now slightly larger) team involved: we had Tilly and Josh weighing rubbish, Becky sifting through crumpled train tickets and taxi receipts, Beth crunching numbers, and Russ and Tim overseeing the process. By getting everyone to take part, not only does it take the pressure off, but it also helps to educate the team and get them to engage in our wider regenerative journey.
Russ and Tim first had the A&B footprint measured by Pilio Group within a year of setting up the business, while last year, we decided to switch over to a Planet Mark certification. Planet Mark manage to make the process incredibly straightforward, and the results and recommendations are easy to understand and put into action. The report also shows you which of the UN’s SDGs you’re contributing towards and includes a donation to Cool Earth – which means we have now protected 2 acres of Peruvian rainforest. (Dream team away trip!)
With a little research and time, you could probably work out your emissions yourself. However, it’s worth considering the accuracy, ease, and reassurance provided by an independent verification process. All in all, each year we probably dedicate around 6 hours to the process with Planet Mark, if we did it ourselves… well, let’s just say it would take a little longer.
To read more about what the process involves, you can check our Russ’s blog from last year.
This year, our overall emissions rose slightly from 0.7 tCO2e, to 1.1.
This was mainly due to an increase in business travel as the world opened up fully after the pandemic. With more in person client meetings and sector events, our emissions rose from 0.3 tCO2e in 2021, to 0.7 tCO2e in 2022. In particular, Tim and Russ travelled to Berlin twice to visit our long-term retainer client, EnviroSustain, once by plane, and once by train – and while the train journey did save them 74% in carbon emissions, it also took them well over 32 hours of travelling, so perhaps not the most practical solution.
Similarly, there was a slight increase in our home working emissions – mainly because Beth went from a hybrid working model, to working fully remotely halfway through the year. This is therefore likely to remain the same in the next few years.
It was great to see our waste reduce from 0.2 tCO2e to just 0.03 tCO2e. We have worked hard to reduce our packaging waste by bringing in lunches from home and nearly eliminating the need for paper in the office, so it’s good to see this paying off!
In 2023, we do expect our overall footprint to increase slightly once again as a direct result of our business growth. However, our main focus will be on reducing our emissions per employee. We think the areas we can gain some quick wins include lobbying our landlord to switch to 100% renewable energy and by restricting our business travel.
And if you have any questions about the emissions monitoring process, we’d be more than happy to chat to you about it!
Please click the button below to view our 2022 Planet Mark Certification Report.