Novati Achieves Carbon Neutrality
We’re in the sustainability business and we ‘walk the walk’ as much as we do ‘talk the talk’. Our team have spent the past 18 months developing a strategy to reduce our Scope 1 & 2 emissions. We’re proud to announce that we’re now certified as a carbon-neutral business.
Speaking about our carbon neutral status, Managing Director, Max Kanda said “We’re committed to reducing our emissions at source for every element of our carbon footprint. The journey to net zero will take several years and requires a huge shift in mindset for our team, our service partners, and our customers. Whilst working towards a net-zero society, our business is committed to using carbon offset projects to help combat global climate change. Today is World Water Day, an initiative spearheaded by the UN, alongside UNESCO, the World Water Council, and the WWF. There’s a lack of clean drinking water for many people, and the damaging effects of global warming are being felt by everyone worldwide.
We recently asked our team to vote for their preferred choice of offset scheme and the most popular choice was to support a Clean Drinking Water project in Northern Ethiopia.
The project will support the provision of safe water using borehole technology to hundreds of households within the Amhara National Regional State (ANRS). The project team works with communities in ANRS to identify broken-down boreholes which will be rehabilitated so that communities have reliable access to clean, safe water and breakdowns are fixed rapidly.
Working closely with Carbon Footprint Limited, members of our Carbon Committee have collated four years’ data on our Scope 1 & 2 emissions and elements of Scope 3. The committees’ goal is to reduce emissions ‘at source’ wherever possible. For the unavoidable emissions, the committee identify a portfolio of certified carbon offsetting schemes that align to our vision of ‘partnering towards your world without waste’.
Our Scope 1 footprint for 2021 includes two greenhouse gas (GHG) conversion factors; Business travel in company-owned vehicles, and Refrigerants.
For the former, the Carbon Committee have been working with our Board of Directors on a new company car strategy that includes a blend of hybrid, low emissions, and fully electric vehicles. However, as our fleet of vehicles are owned rather than leased, the reduction in carbon intensity will take two to three years to reach its peak performance.
One of the few benefits of the coronavirus pandemic has been a cultural shift in society to accepting home working, and virtual meetings are the new norm.
Our Head of Sustainability Management, Sarah Knott, has been working closely with her team to reduce the number of business miles travelled. She said about recent achievements “Our customers have been very supportive of the transition from face-to-face meetings to virtual meetings and audits. It’s not to say that we don’t see anyone in person anymore. But gone are the days of team members spending 3-4 days travelling up and down the country every week.”
The most significant element of our 2021 carbon footprint was Refrigerants. Like many office environments, the time-old debate of having the AC on, off, at 19 degrees or 22 degrees has happened in our offices. The reality is that the more the units are switched on, the more they slowly releasing their gases. Our Air Conditioning units were regassed with 47 kilos of hfc R410A which resulted in an eye-watering 99 tonnes CO2e being factored. Our Carbon Committee have implemented measures to reduce the load on the AC units and this year, we’ll explore long-term options to replace the units with alternatives that utilise gases with significantly lower emissions.
Our Scope 2 footprint relates to energy consumption. We’ve opted for mixed energy tariffs tied to multi-year contract terms for years. In 2021 our carbon footprint for energy was almost 14 tonnes CO2e. Our Newark offices transitioned to a 100% renewable electricity tariff in early 2022 with our Kings Lynn offices also switching last month.
Our Head of External Affairs, Dave Gudgeon said “The Carbon Committee felt it was important to commit to Green Energy from the UK. We decided to partner with SSE because they offer renewable electricity sourced from UK-based wind and hydro assets.”
For more details about our carbon footprint and the work our Carbon Committee undertakes, watch for our 2022 CSR Report which will be released soon.
