being a B Corp: Environment
When applying for our new B Corp accreditation, we were proud to be able to demonstrate how we constantly strive to meet the highest standards of social and environmental performance.
Being responsible ancestors is important to us. Over the last year we have been challenging ourselves as individuals and as an organisation to assess and reduce our environmental impact. Alec Brazier, Consultant, has been leading this initiative for us. Below, Alec shares below why this is important to him and some of the steps we are taking.
Being responsible for Green EG, our environmental and sustainability programme, is a project close to my heart. Before becoming a consultant my degree in biology focused on climate change and the impact of humans on our ecosystems. Corporate sustainability for me is not about making the right noises and being seen to do the right thing on the surface, it is about being authentically aware of the impact our business practices have on the world. And if that impact is a negative one, we need to be courageous enough to make changes.
This has been and continues to be a journey for us. Last year we set ourselves the target of becoming a climate positive organisation using a three-step framework.
1.Monitor
As a consultancy a large proportion of our carbon footprint is travel to and from client site and meetings. We began by monitoring the carbon emissions of all miles travelled by our employees as well as how our energy consumption and waste is monitored and disposed of at our head office.
2.Reduce
We have worked hard to reduce the amount of waste we produce and the impact that has. This has included actively engaging with the company that manages our office building regarding energy usage and waste targets, as well as clarifying and redefining our own recycling policy. We want to support businesses whose practices and products are ecologically and socially responsible. This has led us to conduct a supplier review and transition to more environmentally friendly office supplies.
3.Offset
In 2019 we created the EG Woodland Grove through our partnership with Trees for Life who are working toward a revitalised wild forest in the Highlands of Scotland. While we remain committed to reducing our environmental impact wherever we can, this will allow us to offset carbon emissions as a result of our essential business activities. We have planted 271 trees since we established the Grove in September 2019. In 2020 we plan to drive beyond our initial goal to simply offset our carbon emissions and become a climate positive organisation in our 20th Year of business.
This is not just a top down policy. All our people are engaged fully in our approach and we make sure our progress against targets is visible and actionable for all.
I volunteered to lead this initiative, because I care about the future of our planet and I am acutely aware of the danger climate change poses to it. Business must play its part in tackling this climate crisis and I’m proud to work somewhere that recognises this. I hope that by helping Egremont Group build sustainability into the fabric of how we do business I am a part of making that future look brighter.”
This is the second of three articles which describe the different areas of assessment we undertook to become an accredited B Corp.
You can read the first piece about community here.
You can read the announcement of our accreditation here.
To find out more please get in touch / +44 (0) 20 7298 7878
