Carbon Reduction Plan

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 30 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. (available on our website at https://martenwalshcherer.com/carbonreduction)

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 Marten Walsh Cherer Ltd 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.
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Carbon Reduction Plan

The tables below show our carbon footprint in our baseline years, April 2021 – March 2022, when we first started measuring our emissions and the current year. 

Carbon Reduction Commitments/Actions

Marten Walsh Cherer Ltd 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 use an 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 employee.

Our base year for all measurements is April 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
• Solid waste
• Liquid waste
• Employee commuter mileage by type – walk / cycle / car / bus / train
• Business travel by private car / bus / rail / air / sea.

Prioritise

Our carbon calculations have 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 were able to identify quick and easy wins, e.g. changes to processes, upgrade office appliances, WFH policies, whilst also implementing longer-term multi-facet strategies for the larger emission areas.

In the last few years, we have made several changes to the business with a key focus around our environmental impact.

Changes to processes already implemented:

• All data is stored electronically
• Processes are paperless except for the seldom hardcopy transcript
• 99% of transcripts sent via email
• All documents are used electronically
• Use video-conferencing equipment and software to stream court hearings to allow stenographers to WFH
• Remote environments created to allow 80% of staff to WFH full time with the remaining 20% having the ability to WFH
• We only work with companies (for services such as waste disposal, office cleaning, repairs) who are committed to operating to the highest environmental standards – ISO14001 accredited

Changes to technology already implemented:

• Lighting – LED and motion sensor lights have been installed in our office
• Appliances – appliances have been replaced with the best available in terms of energy use
• Water use – low consumption appliances have replaced high-consumption devices
• Reduction in use of paper and consumables through introduction of electronic systems to replace paper-based procedures
• Induction/training, electronic storage of documents, etc.

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.
• Education on waste disposal and recycling.

Process Change

We continuously review all our processes to identify opportunities to further reduce or eliminate physical waste and making more efficient use of materials.

Technology Change

We have developed our action plan to implement the Best Available Technology in relation to:

• Heat Loss – sourcing a building with better insulation
• Heating and Ventilation – upgrade of HVAC system
• Moving to a fully cloud-based solution for data storage.

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.

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.

Audit

Whilst not compulsory, we have committed to an annual audit of our carbon data reporting by an independent third party.

Offsetting

Offsetting the emissions that we cannot mitigate will become part of our strategy, but only at the point that we have implemented all the possible behavioural, process and technology changes that we can influence.

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 has 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. 

 Name: Jennifer Chandler

Job Title/Designation: Managing Director

Date:  1 November 2022