As a leading energy and sustainability consultancy we (LCE), specialise in delivering real energy savings that help organisations reduce their carbon footprint, use less energy and spend less money. We also ensure that our carbon footprint is closely monitored and last year, proudly became certified by The Planet Mark™. In our second year of business carbon reporting, we are delighted to announce that we have successfully retained The Planet Mark™ certification for another year, exceeding their annual carbon reduction target of 5%.
With our baseline carbon footprint calculated last year (YE 2016) for energy use within our office located in Brighton, and business travel, we were determined to meet The Planet Mark™ certification target of an annual 5% reduction in emissions. This year (YE 2017) our total carbon footprint was 18.8 tCO2e, a decrease of 6.6% from YE2016. Comparison to YE 2016, also shows a 32% decrease in total carbon emissions per employee, a 15% decrease in building emissions per m2 and a 9% decrease in non-fleet travel emissions.
Year on year comparison is based on normalised figures that exclude rail as it was reported for the first time this year. Electricity and gas emissions have again been calculated using CIBSE benchmarks due to undergoing office moves during the year and not being able to obtain energy consumption data from the associated landlords.
The electricity reduction shown is attributed to updated 2017 DEFRA emission conversion factors that reflect the greening of the UK National Grid. Furthermore, during the last month of the reporting period, the office was moved to a naturally ventilated site, as opposed to the previous sites that had centralised air conditioning and were thus more energy intensive. The office occupied in YE2017 was bigger in size than the YE2016 office, which explains the increase in natural gas consumption. For more information click here to download our case study.
LCE are also an associate Partner of the Planet Mark™ and have assisted in gaining certification for a number of our clients. If you are interested in finding out more about how you can reduce your own carbon footprint, please do not hesitate to contact us on 01273 030154 or at info@lowco2.uk.
