The UK Government amended the Climate Change Act 2008 in 2019 by introducing a target of at least 100% reduction in the net UK carbon account (i.e. a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions when compared to 1990 levels) by 2050. As a result, Central Government Departments, their Executive Agencies and Non-Departmental Public Bodies are required to ensure that suppliers to contracts with an annual value of in excess of £5 million (excluding VAT) per year are committed to achieving “Net Zero by 2050” for all procurements after 30th September 2021.
This has led to PPN 06/21 which applies to all new procurements from this date including framework call-offs and Dynamic Purchasing Systems where the anticipated individual value of the call-off or DPS is £5 million or more (excluding VAT) per annum. To demonstrate compliance, we have set out our environmental management measures in our Carbon Reduction Plan which includes:
- Confirming our commitment to achieving Net Zero by 2050 for our UK operations.
- Details of our carbon footprint/current emissions for the sources included in Scope 1 and 2 of the GHG Protocol and a defined subset of Scope 3 emissions.
- Providing emissions reporting of the CO2e (Carbon Dioxide Equivalent) for the greenhouse gases covered by the Kyoto Protocol (predominantly carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide).
- Setting out the environmental management measures we have adopted including specific carbon reduction measures.
- Publication of our Carbon Reduction Plan on our website.
Scope 1, 2 and 3 Emissions Definitions
Scope 1 Direct Emissions – these are direct greenhouse gas emissions that occur from sources that are controlled or owned by us (e.g. emissions from boilers in our buildings, company vehicles etc).
Scope 2 Energy Indirect Emissions – these are indirect greenhouse gas emissions associated with the purchase of electricity, heating or cooling etc, and are measured and reported in alignment with our energy use.
Scope 3 Other Indirect Emissions – these fall into 15 categories and include all sources not specified within Scopes 1 and 2 above. The Scope 3 emissions that we are required to report on are:
- Transportation of employees for business related activities in vehicles not owned or operated by us.
- Transportation of employees between home and work in vehicles not owned or operated by us including in their own vehicles.
- “Upstream” transportation and distribution of products purchased by us from Tier 1 suppliers (e.g. paper, printer cartridges, office consumables etc).
- “Downstream” transportation and distribution of products sold by us including retail and storage. This category is not applicable as Resource Finder is a service business and does not produce, transport or distribute products.
- Disposal and treatment of waste generated in facilities not owned or controlled by us, but from whom we purchase Tier 1 products.
Carbon Reduction Plan
The tables below show our carbon footprint in our baseline year, 2021, when we first started measuring our emissions and the current year.
| Baseline Year: | 12 months commencing 01/2021 |
| Baseline Emissions Calculations: | No Scope 3 emissions reporting took place prior to 01/01/2021 so baseline emissions have been calculated according to the baseline on this date. |
| Scope 1 CO2e: | 5,484 kgCO2e |
| Scope 2 CO2e: | 1,614 kgCO2e |
| Scope 3 CO2e (included sources): | 51,675 kgCO2e |
| Total Emissions: | 58,773 kgCO2e |
| Current Year: | 12 months commencing 01/2022 |
| Scope 1 CO2e: | 4,756kg CO2e |
| Scope 2 CO2e: | 1,342 kgCO2e |
| Scope 3 CO2e (included sources): | 37,451 kgCO2e |
| Total Emissions (tCO2e): | 43,549 kgCO2e |
Carbon Reduction Commitments/Actions
Resource Finder is committed to achieving Net Zero by 2050 and as part of this commitment, has an interim target of reducing emissions by 50% by 2030. This plan is reviewed annually by the Directors to check progress and establish if changes should be made to the actions we have in place to maximise our reduction in carbon emissions.
The basis of our Carbon strategy is one of Measure – Prioritise – Act – Measure – Repeat.
Measure
We report on the sources of environmental impact over which we have operational control, calculate our carbon footprint monthly in accordance with the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocols Corporate Standard, and report against the Kyoto Protocol greenhouse gasses in terms of:
- Actual targets – absolute reduction targets which compare actual figures in the target year to those in the base year.
- Intensity targets – based on a normalising factor.
We subscribe to a proprietary online carbon calculator service to manage our data inputs, conduct the required calculations, set and record our intensity metrics, and provide monthly carbon reporting. The data that sits behind this is the UK Government Greenhouse Gas reporting database, updated when appropriate.
This provides us with our emissions by source, and total emissions by month, sets our intensity metrics and tracks performance month-on-month.
Our chosen intensity metric is kg/CO2 per m2 floor area.
Our base year for all measurements is 01/2021. This will not change unless there is a significant change to our company structure (e.g. a merger or acquisition) or a change in the company’s ownership, in which case the base year may move to the reporting year following the structural change.
Specific inputs and output used to calculate figures quoted in our Carbon Reduction Plan include:
- Electricity.
- Gas.
- Fugitive emissions (uncontrolled/unmanaged emissions e.g. fridges/air conditioners that leak refrigerant gases).
- Water waste.
- Solid waste.
- Liquid waste.
- Fleet vehicle mileage by vehicle type car / van / LGV.
- Employee commuter mileage by type – walk / cycle / motorcycle / car / bus / train.
- Business travel by private car / bus / rail / air / sea.
Prioritise
Our monthly carbon calculation has enabled us to identify the largest sources of GHG emissions, and to focus those which have most impact. That does not imply however that we are not implementing actions across the board. We have been able to identify quick and easy wins such as:
- Recycling
- Use of recycled resource
- We choose to work with sustainable suppliers
- We carry out online meetings with all national and international clients
- We promote the use of car share when use of business travel is required
- Green energy and green office equipment
- We have planted trees within the outside of our premises
Act
Our action plan involves Behaviour Change, Process Change and Technology Change.
We have taken the obvious first step and committed to sourcing electricity from a 100% Renewable Energy tariff.
Behaviour Change
We have communicated our Net Zero ambitions across our workforce, and have tasked staff with identifying where they can affect carbon reductions through behaviour change. Examples include:
- Encouraging the turning-off or powering-down of appliances and lights when not in use.
- Eliminating unnecessary heating in unoccupied areas.
- Education programme relating to the importance of saving water as a carbon mitigation measure.
- Permitting home-working and encouraging video-conferencing.
- Encouraging alternative travel to work e.g. walk, cycle, car-share, public transport.
Process Change
We have conducted a thorough review of all our process to identify opportunities to reduce or eliminate physical waste, and making more efficient use of materials (e.g. electronic data storage and moving towards paperless systems).
Technology Change
We have introduced the sub-metering of electricity, gas and water where possible and practical. This has significantly improved our understanding of how we use energy within the business.
With this information, we have developed our action plan to implement the Best Available Technology in relation to:
- Lighting – adoption of LED lighting, better lighting controls.
- Identifying and implementing opportunities for on-site low / zero carbon energy generation.
- Water use – specifying low consumption appliances during the normal replacement cycle, and accelerating that where high-consumption devices have been found.
- Appliances – replacing appliances with the best available in terms of energy use in the normal replacement cycle, but accelerating that for the highest consumption appliances.
- Reduction in use of paper and consumables through introduction of electronic systems to replace paper based procedures such as intranet and online induction/training, electronic storage of documents etc.
- Company owned / leased vehicles will be replaced with their electric equivalent as part of the routine replacement cycles, unless we identify a particularly high emission vehicle, in which case its replacement will be accelerated.
Scope 3
Whilst we can influence the Scope 3 emissions arising from our staff travel to work, other upstream and downstream emissions are harder to measure and report.
We have communicated our Net Zero ambitions to our Tier 1 supply chain partners and are engaging with them to support us with reporting Scope 3 emissions that are not under our control.
Measure
Our monthly carbon reporting means that we are in a continual measurement programme, and by implementing the above actions, we are able to see how well each specific measure is working and refine our processes accordingly.
Offsetting
Offsetting the emissions that we can’t mitigate will become part of our strategy, but only at the point that we’ve implemented all of the possible behavioural, process and technology changes that we can influence.
Review
This carbon reduction plan will be reviewed at least annually and may be altered from time to time in light of legislative changes or other prevailing circumstances.
Declaration
This Carbon Reduction Plan has been completed in accordance with PPN 06/21 and associated guidance.
Emissions have been reported and recorded in accordance with the published reporting standard for Carbon Reduction Plans, the GHG Reporting Protocol Corporate Standard and we use the appropriate Government emission conversion factors for greenhouse gas company reporting.
Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions have been reported in accordance with SECR requirements and the required subset of Scope 3 emissions have been reported in accordance with the published reporting standard for Carbon Reduction Plans and the Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Standard.
We confirm this Carbon Reduction Plan is reviewed and signed off at board level on an annual basis and is available on the home page of our website.
Robert Fuller
Managing Director
Resource Finder Recruitment Ltd