As I reflect on our year, I cannot believe how quickly time has flown. I have been looking at the COP28 outcomes of last week (can it be 12 months since I was looking at COP?) with a feeling of deflation again at the ‘damp squib’ of a meet, with small incremental movement at best and little real progress on movement away from fossil fuels, with neither timescales or any mandatory commitment under the deal. For general overview see What was agreed on climate change at COP28 in Dubai? – BBC News

That said, we are aware of our clients’ and working partners’ continued commitment and progress in their own journeys: you will likely have seen announcements surrounding our Partnership with Nottingham Trent University – one of the world’s most sustainable universities – to build skills and educate the industry, driving the sustainable agenda in our sector through their new Centre of Excellence. See our News page for details.

We have continued to put our money where our mouth is; as you know from previous posts, I have been on a bit of an anti-waste campaign and we were delighted to be able to make significant upgrades to our office furniture using professionally refurbished and pre-loved purchases, and successfully passed our own old items to new homes wherever they were fit for purpose. Did you know that the carbon footprint of an average office chair’s manufacture is 72 kg CO₂, and by not having brand new workstations (chair, desk, pedestal) a saving of circa 3900 kg of CO₂ can be achieved for a headcount of 26? That is more than half our current average monthly operational emissions….and just think of the landfill avoided!

We have been increasingly discussing strategies for broadening our reach and improving capture of our sustainable activities beyond carbon; based on the most relevant UN Sustainability goals for Focus and feeding into our ever-developing Social Value policy – so I look forward to updating you on those in the forthcoming year.

Given our decision to pursue Carbon neutrality, lowering emissions is still crucial for us, but there are wider environmental and sustainable aspects to manage that we aim to better plan and document. I recommend the Supply Chain Sustainability School (SCSS) learning modules / webinars as a useful tool, including establishing priority areas via ‘heatmapping’ and considering an extremely wide sustainability scope covering both people and planet.

All that remains is to wish you all the best for the festive season: hoping that the usual excesses of Christmas are not too planet-punishing. Updates will continue in the new year.