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Beyondly's 2020 Carbon Footprint & our Pledge to Net Zero

Every year we report on Beyondly's carbon footprint. 2020 was an unusual year due to Covid-19 and this has certainly impacted on our carbon footprint for the year.

First you can see our carbon emissions in 2020 followed by the difference in emissions 2019 v's 2020:

We have seen a number of decreases in 2020:

  • Employee commuting remains the highest contributor to our emissions at 41%, but has reduced significantly compared to 2019 by 17 tCO2e (52%) due to homeworking increase
  • Business travel has also seen a decrease of 79%, and is no longer our second largest contributor, again due to the impact of Covid-19 on travel
  • Heating is now the second largest contributor to our emissions, and has increased by 21% compared to 2019, as we spent an entire year in a new office space vs. just half the year in 2019, however when normalised against floor space, heating usage has actually decreased
  • Market based electricity consumption has decreased by 100% as we purchased green energy for the full year in 2020, which counts as zero emissions.
Objective: To reduce the emissions per member by 10% from 2019 figure in 2020

Business Travel Emissions by member number (kgCO2e per member):

This was achieved:

  • Business travel emissions per member has reduced by nearly 100% compared to 2019
  • Remained beneath the quarterly target every quarter
  • Q1 only quarter where still operating as normal prior to Covid-19 – still achieved
Objective: To reduce emissions heating oil consumption per square foot of office space by 10% in 2020

Emissions from heating of leased office (kgCO2e per square meter floor space):

This was achieved:

  • Heating per square meter floor area has decrease by 19% compared to 2019
  • Exceeded quarterly target in Q1 but below in all other quarters.
Pledge to Net Zero

Objective: Achieve an average 4.2% per annum reduction in emissions by 2025 for scope 1, scope 2 and relevant scope 3 emissions:

  • Heating now makes up 80% of out pledge to Net Zero emissions compared to 38% in 2019, while business travel emissions has reduced from 55% in 2019 to 20% in 2020
  • Electricity was all green energy throughout 2020 so now makes up 0% of emissions
  • We have achieved a 36% reduction in total gross emissions and have remained below the target for 2019 which was 30.15 tCO2e, with total gross emissions of 21.06 tCO2e.

This now leads on to our Pledge to Net Zero thought piece .....

Our thought piece addresses steps to delivering an economy in line with climate science and in support of net zero carbon.

Beyondly’s practical steps

As a small service-based company there is perhaps less opportunity to reduce our overall emissions than other larger, product-based companies. However, we have a very wide member base whom we have constant interactions with and potential influence over, from a range of different sectors. We want to lead by example for these members as a company with environmental issues at the heart of all decisions, so that we can provide expert guidance and expertise having gone through the motions ourselves to reduce our own carbon footprint.

These are our thoughts on the practical steps which need to be taken to support a net zero carbon economy:

Measure and monitor

The first step towards net zero carbon is measuring and monitoring your carbon footprint. We have been doing this for a number of years, but 2020 was the first year we set ourselves reduction targets focusing on 2 of the highest emitting areas of the business. Without a comprehensive carbon footprint calculation, you cannot identify the areas which are contributing the most to your carbon footprint, and therefore determine which areas will be most effective to focus on for reduction.

Identify hotspots

As well as understanding the highest emitting areas, it is also important to assess which of these areas is something which can actually be influenced and controlled. For us, the largest contribution to our carbon footprint was employee commuting, at 49%. However, due to the location of the business on a remote country estate, alternative transport options for employees are extremely limited and employee commuting is something we have less control over. Heating and business travel however, which were the next 2 highest emitting areas, were activities we had more control over.

Set targets

Heating and business travel were therefore the 2 areas we selected to make our objectives around in 2020, and managed to successfully meet both targets. In order to do this you need to ensure you have a clear plan of action over how to meet the targets, and outline to all employees the actions to be taken over the course of the year, for us, this included:

  • Strict temperature controls on thermostats
  • Company wide shut down on a Friday evening
  • A strict electric company car policy
  • Justification for the need of any site visits and why this could not be conducted remotely

Providing updates on targets is also important, to remind everyone of the goals and what actions they should be taking to help achieve them, and show progress towards meeting the targets so everyone is aware. We used monthly company meetings to do this.

Learn and take action

2020 has likely been a bit of an anomaly year for most companies due to the Covid-19 impacts, and therefore should be treated with caution when assessing progress against targets. However, many companies can learn a lot from what they have had to change as a result, namely the new style of working. Homeworking has proven for us to work more effectively than any of us realised possible, which automatically cuts down any emissions contributions from employee commuting, and energy/waste/water usage in the office.

Furthermore, a ban on external site visits meant our annual audit season saw a complete shift from onsite audits to all desktop audits, which remained successful and beneficial, showing that much more can be done virtually, cutting down on miles and miles of business travel. Having spoken to a variety of members, it has also massively reduced their air miles, cutting down unnecessary flights for in-person meetings which would have taken the whole day previously, but they can now complete virtually in 2 hours. As challenging as the Covid-19 pandemic has been in many ways, we need to take the positives out of the transformation to the way we work and move forwards using this as a tool to transition to a net zero carbon economy.

Aside from those 2 main areas, we are keen to reduce our environmental impact in any other way we possibly can. This includes moving to a completely paperless office (again, another necessary step taken due to Covid-19), which has proved effective and significantly reduced paper usage from 25,000 sheets in 2019 down to 10,000 in 2020. We also switched to a completely renewable electricity supply in 2019.

Provide support

Our passion to do the right thing for the environment has now extended into developing new areas of the business. We have introduced a carbon footprinting service, which involves helping companies calculate their own carbon footprint, and can include guiding them in setting their own science-based reduction targets to achieve net zero, and providing suggestions for improvements to help them get there. We are also trying to increase our involvement in the community through projects such as school recycling projects, and a business park sustainability project.