Admittedly, the data requirement to assess all of scope 3 emissions throughout our supply chain (per PAS 2060) will take more work, especially with respect to suppliers’ impact, but initial findings on our data collection to date can still highlight for us where we want to target initial savings.

Of our total 54,677kg of CO2e across all current measures in 2021-2, we estimate that based on assumptions of average office attendance, our operational carbon footprint can be broken down as follows:

Utilities: For the first time, we have appraised our staff’s estimated impact whilst working remotely. This equated to over 24% of operational carbon emissions compared with a little over 9% attributable to our premises’ utilities.

Naturally this will fluctuate as we settle into any new post-COVID hybrid working pattern, and although it makes sense that energy use is more efficient in a shared space (you only need to heat and light the room once, for all staff), this must be balanced against the impact of travel to the place of work.

It won’t surprise many to learn that, as a firm with some client site-based obligations, travel impact came out as our largest emissions producer – over 66% across combined business and estimated commuter mileage.

Given the average sized car (1 to 5 years old) emits in the region of 124g/km and, for example, the average train journey per passenger emits 31.5g/km, there is a good case for swapping out single passenger journeys by car where good, affordable public transport operates: I have tried this myself for nearly all inter-office visits since starting this venture and although it requires some flexibility, I have enjoyed the habit change.

Could your team commit to switching out a proportion of your driving? How can you support them to do that?