Preliminary

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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

• 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.

 

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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).

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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 Certes IT Service Solutions Limited 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 (2023)

 

Sustainability statement

Inspired Act Ltd recognises that climate change has a sustained negative impact on all our lives, and particularly on young people and their mental health. We are committed to working in partnership with others to ensure that in all areas of our activities we can drive real and lasting positive environmental impact.

 

Commitment to achieving Net Zero

Inspired Act Ltd is committed to achieving Net Zero emissions by 2050.

 

Calculating our emissions footprint

To set clear targets and implement initiatives to reduce our carbon emissions, we have calculated our emissions footprint based on the year ending 2022.

 

Baseline Year: 12 months commencing 01/2022

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Baseline Emissions Calculations:  No Scope 3 emissions reporting took place prior to 01/2022 so baseline emissions have been calculated according to the baseline on this date.

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Scope 1 CO2e:  n/a tonsCO2e

Scope 2 CO2e:  5.2 tonsCO2e

Scope 3 CO2e (included sources):  6.9 tonsCO2e

Total Emissions: 12.1 tonsCO2e

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* Data from Carbon Footprint Ltd calculation taken March/2023

 

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Carbon Reduction Commitments/Actions

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Inspired Act 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 2035, and projecting to achieve a reduction of 4.3% in December 2023.  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 will 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.

Engaging with Carbon Foot Print Ltd (www.carbonfootprint.com) online carbon calculator service we can manage our data inputs, conduct the required calculations, set and record our intensity metrics, and provide monthly carbon reporting.

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 tons/CO2 per m2 floor area.

Our base year for all measurements is 01/2022.  This will not change unless there is a significant change to our company structure 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.

• Employee commuter mileage (walk/cycle/motorcycle/car/bus/train).

• Business travel by private car/bus/rail/air/sea.

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Prioritise

Although Inspired Act Ltd has a long-standing commitment to sustainability, there has been no historic baseline for Inspired Act Ltd. The adoption of our monthly carbon calculation has enabled us to identify the largest sources of GHG emissions, and to focus on those which have the most impact. That does not imply, however, that we are not implementing actions across the board.  During the base year we were able to identify quick and easy wins, such as the business reducing its office space by 25%, and therefore the amount of Scope 2 electricity and gas consumption by 25% even during the year 2022.  We have also introduced initiatives to reduce commuting to our offices or carrying our business travel to customer sites, which has reduced our petrol consumption. We have achieved this through the introduction of increased use of public transport, and we operate remote/home working for employees where possible, and encourage a greater use and adoption of on-line video conferencing with our clients, in place of face-to-face meetings, therefore reducing the consumption of petrol and public transport.

 

Act

Our action plan involves Behaviour Change, Process Change and Technology Change.

Behaviour Change

We have communicated our Net Zero ambitions across our workforce, and will task our 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.

• Implementing cloud-based systems and document sharing technology, and on-line client tendering portals, reducing paper consumption and waste

 

Process Change

We are conducting a thorough review of all our processes 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 are considering the introduction of sub-metering of electricity, gas and water where possible and practical in order to significantly improve our understanding of how we use energy within the business.

With this information, we will continue to develop 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 are communicating our Net Zero ambitions to our supply chain partners and are engaging with them to support us with reporting Scope 3 emissions that are not under our control.

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Measure

Our bi-annual 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.

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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.

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Declaration

This Carbon Reduction Plan has been completed with consideration to PPN 06/21 and associated guidance, including emissions recorded in accordance with the reporting standard for Carbon Reduction Plans.

Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions have been recorded and required subset of Scope 3 emissions considered.

We confirm this Carbon Reduction Plan is reviewed and signed off at board level on an annual basis and is available on our website through a dedicated link (https://www.inspired-act.co.uk/CRP)

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