We are dedicated to working with our clients to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and we are equally committed to continuing to reduce our own environmental impact and carbon footprint.
We are a small, fully owned subsidiary of the Carbon Trust and operate from the Carbon Trust’s main offices in New Street Square, London. As a result we have adopted the Carbon Trust Group environment policies and contribute to achieving the Carbon Trust’s overall environmental targets. You can read about the Carbon Trust Group environmental report here.
We also have our own specific plan to measure, manage and reduce our impact.
Carbon footprint report 2008/09
The financial year 2008/09 is our first year of operation. We have calculated our carbon footprint from 01/04/08 to 31/03/09. This footprint will form a historical base year for comparison with future inventories.
The footprint has been calculated according to the GHG protocol, using 2008 emission factors from DEFRA.
The organisational boundary of the footprint was defined using the operational control approach.
The operational boundary of the footprint includes all scope 1 and scope 2 emissions. We have also chosen to include some significant scope 3 emission sources within the footprint. Other scope 3 emissions have been excluded as they are either less material, or not possible to calculate at this time.
Our measurement goes beyond the requirements of the Carbon Trust Standard – we also indicate our Level 1 and Level 2 footprint according to the rules of the Carbon Trust Standard in the table below.
Scope 1 emissions
The Carbon Trust Standard Company has no scope 1 emissions as we do not have operational control over any fuel combustion and do not own any vehicles. Our London offices are heated by a gas-fired system operated by our landlord and shared with other tenants. Emissions associated with this system are included under scope 2 emissions.
Scope 2 emissions
The company has indirect, scope 2 emissions associated with our occupancy of space in the Carbon Trust Group London office. Our emissions arise from electricity use and imported heating and cooling. We have calculated the footprint for which we are responsible by allocating a proportion of the overall building emissions to our operations based on headcount.
Scope 3 emissions
Due to our business model, the Carbon Trust Standard Company has a significant footprint associated with the activities of our suppliers, employee travel, and employee commuting. We have considered the range of likely scope 3 emissions and have estimated those emissions that we consider to be material and quantifiable. These are:
- Our use of outsourced delivery partners to manage aspects of our service. Estimates of these emissions are based on electricity and fuel use by our partners.
- Our use of independent assessors who travel to clients’ sites to conduct Carbon Trust Standard assessments. These emissions are based on an estimate of assessor travel per assessment.
- Our business travel. These emissions estimates are based on employee expenses.
- Our staff commuting. Emissions estimates are based on a staff survey.
- Emissions associated with the estate management of our London offices, calculated by allocating a proportion of overall estate emissions based on headcount.
Other sources of scope 3 emissions associated with our activities which we have excluded from this footprint are:
- Emissions associated with fugitive emissions of refrigerant gases from the cooling system in our London office.
- Emissions associated with our use of paper and other office resources.
- Emissions associated with the disposal of waste from our offices.
- Emissions associated with our use of outsourced IT services.
- Other emissions associated with our supply chain.
These sources were excluded as we are currently unable to measure their associated emissions. These exclusions adversely impact the certainty of our footprint report and we will look to improve our data for these sources going forward. In particular, our recent move to a new office should improve our ability to measure these emissions.
Summary of emissions
We estimate our 2008/09 carbon footprint as follows:
|
Emission source
|
Level 1 Footprint tCO2
|
Level 2 Footprint tCO2
|
Full Footprint tCO2
|
|
Scope 1
|
|
|
|
|
All sources
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Scope 2
|
|
|
|
|
Electricity consumption
|
9.5
|
9.5
|
9.5
|
|
Imported heat from gas
|
2.5
|
2.5
|
2.5
|
|
Total scope 2
|
12.1
|
12.1
|
12.1
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Scope 3
|
|
|
|
|
Business travel
|
n/a
|
4.9
|
4.9
|
|
Outsourced services – buildings
|
n/a
|
n/a
|
8.3
|
|
Estate Management
|
n/a
|
n/a
|
0.1
|
|
Assessor travel
|
n/a
|
n/a
|
9.7
|
|
Employee commuting
|
n/a
|
n/a
|
12.9
|
|
Total scope 3
|
n/a
|
4.9
|
36.0
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Overall Total
|
12.1
|
17.0
|
48.0
|
|
Footprint per certification
|
0.17
|
0.24
|
0.68
|
The Carbon Trust Standard Company is committed to reducing its impact on the environment, but as a young and growing company it is anticipated that our overall footprint will grow in absolute terms as our operations expand. We also measure our footprint relative to our output. We track emissions per completed certification in order to assess the overall efficiency of our operations and our relative performance improvement. During 2008/09 we completed 71 certifications, giving a total footprint of 0.68 tonnes per certification (or 0.17 tonnes on a Level 1 basis).
Reducing our impact
The Carbon Trust Standard Company has already taken a number of actions to better understand and minimise its footprint. These include:
- Moving, as part of the Carbon Trust Group, to a new office with better energy performance and maintaining ISO 14001 certification as part of the Carbon Trust Group.
- Reducing business travel through webinars and phone conferences rather than face-to-face meetings. 104 meetings have been held using webinars since the system was first used in October 2008.
- Using electronic documents and e-signatures for proposals, reducing paper and postage.
- Automated monitoring of the electricity usage of individual desks within the Carbon Trust offices. This encourages employee awareness, and enables remote control of desktops to minimise energy wastage.
Over the next 12 months we will take further actions to measure our impact more accurately and to become more carbon efficient:
- Implement a tracking system to record assessor travel and accurately calculate the carbon impact of each assessment
- Implement a system to track and apportion emissions associated with fugitive refrigerant leakage from the London office’s air conditioning and refrigerant systems.
- Reduce assessor travel through better assessor selection for each customer, placing more priority on proximity.
- Further reducing business travel through use of webinars.
- Incorporating carbon considerations in procurement criteria.
The Carbon Trust Standard Company aims to significantly improve its carbon performance relative to turnover, FTEs and to the number of certifications achieved each year.