Our thinking

Good Business

27 May, 2022

For the second year running, we have just released our annual Good Business carbon footprint. Although we are a small, services-based business, we all need to contribute to transitioning to net zero – and measuring our footprint helps us locate areas of intensity and reduction opportunities. 

It wouldn’t be a footprint if we couldn’t share some numbers with you first. We reduced our total emissions by 32% compared to 2020. Although we are en route to reaching our 50% emissions reduction target by 2030 (from a 2020 base-year), we recognize 2021 was a year of abnormal business activities, so we need to anticipate some bounce back in emissions and put in place the right policies to make sure we stay on track in 2022 and beyond.    

The footprint process also got us thinking about how to help the team manage their own footprints. As a result, we are implementing a ‘slow travel’ benefit. This will provide employees with additional paid leave for their holidays, if they travel by land or sea. As much as we want to fly to far-off places, the policy will encourage rail travel and escapades to Europe!   

That said, emissions associated with personal lives and leisure travel aren’t included in our Good Business footprint. Nonetheless, we think this is an important area for businesses to consider: helping employees understand where they can take action to reduce their emissions. In response, we’ll be developing an emissions calculator for our employees to measure their own carbon footprint and from 2023 onwards including personal emissions in our offset strategy.   

Our offset strategy is focused on sequestration, and our ambition is to shift to innovative storage solutions in the future. For now, the process of measuring and assessing our climate impacts continues to spark conversation, urge climate-conscious policy change and give us foresight for what will be needed to drive the net-zero future.  

 

By Bertie Bateman