SRL’s Carbon Reduction Plan
Summary
SRL Technical Services Limited is committed to achieving Net Zero emissions by 2030, well ahead of the Government’s 2050 deadline. We will endeavour to become Net Zero prior to 2030 because we believe we should be championing emission reduction as an Environmental Consultancy.
This Carbon Reduction Plan has been completed in accordance with PPN 06/21 and associated guidance and reporting standard for Carbon Reduction Plans.
Emissions have been reported and recorded in accordance with the published reporting standard for Carbon Reduction Plans and the GHG Reporting Protocol corporate standard[1] and uses the appropriate Government emission conversion factors for GHG company reporting[2].
Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions have been reported in accordance with SECR requirements, and the required subset of Scope 3 emissions have been reported in accordance with the published reporting standard for Carbon Reduction Plans and the Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Standard[3].
This Carbon Reduction Plan has been reviewed and signed off by the board of directors.
Director
Date: 18th April 2023
Contents
2.0 Baseline Emissions Footprint
3.0 Current Emissions Reporting.
4.0 Emissions Reduction Targets.
5.3 Elimination of Scope 2 Emissions.
1.0 Introduction
SRL Technical Services Limited is conscious of its position and role within the community and is committed to improving its environmental performance as a responsible employer and environmental consultancy. We continually identify and comply with all relevant environmental legislation, regulations and codes of practice that relate to our activities. We maintain knowledge of all relevant legal and political developments so that we anticipate, and are prepared for, any future changes in standards.
This Carbon Reduction Plan conforms to the requirements of Procurement Policy Note PPN06/21 Taking Account of Carbon Reduction Plans in the procurement of major government contracts[4] and the supporting Technical standard for the Completion of Carbon Reduction Plans[5]. The calculation of SRL’s carbon emissions adheres to the Greenhouse Gas Protocol’s Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard[6] which accounts for Scope 1 (direct emissions), Scope 2 (energy indirect) and Scope 3 (other indirect) emissions. SRL’s business activities produce emissions from the following:
- Scope 1:
- Heating the office (LPG)
- Fuel for company van (diesel)
- Hiring cars (petrol/diesel)
- Scope 2:
- Consuming electricity
- Scope 3:
- Using a taxi
- Using personal cars
- Taking flights
- Train journeys
- Water consumption
- Purchasing laboratory materials
- Disposing of waste
- Homeworking (from January 2022)
[4] Carbon Reduction Plan Procurement Policy Note.pdf
[5] Microsoft Word – PPN 0621 Technical standard for the Completion of Carbon Reduction Plans.docx (publishing.service.gov.uk)
[6] ghg-protocol-revised.pdf (ghgprotocol.org)
2.0 Baseline Emissions Footprint
Baseline emissions are a record of the greenhouse gases that have been produced in the past and were produced prior to the introduction of any strategies to reduce emissions. Baseline emissions are the reference point against which emissions reduction can be measured.
| Baseline Year: September 2018 – August 2019 | |
| Additional Details relating to the Baseline Emissions calculations. | |
| SRL has measured Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions since January 2022 as a result of working towards ISO 14001 which we achieved accreditation for in April 2022. Our baseline emissions are for the financial year of 2018/2019 because it is the earliest year not impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns. Therefore, this data best represents SRL’s business activities. | |
| Baseline year emissions: | |
| Emissions | Total (tCO2e) |
| Scope 1 | 11.0 |
| Scope 2 | 5.7 |
| Scope 3 | 79.6 |
| Total | 96.3 |
Figure 1- Breakdown of SRL’s baseline emissions (September 2018 to August 2019)
3.0 Current Emissions Reporting
| Reporting Year: September 2021 – August 2022 | |
| Emissions | Total (tCO2e) |
| Scope 1 | 16.5 |
| Scope 2 | 5.2 |
| Scope 3 | 45.3 |
| Total | 67.0 |
Figure 2 – Breakdown of SRL’s emissions between September 2021 and August 2022.
The Scope 3 emissions from taxis (0.004) and water (0.01) were so small they were not captured to 1 decimal place but are noted here. No flights were taken during this reporting year.
The solar panels on our west office roof generated 25,419kWh throughout this period which equates to 5 tCO2e being offset. Our total net emissions for this reporting year are therefore 62 tCO2e.
4.0 Emissions Reduction Targets
In order to continue our progress to achieving Net Zero, we have adopted the following carbon reduction targets:
- Achieve Net Zero emissions by 2030 by,
- minimising waste to landfill, and
- reducing and reusing laboratory materials for testing.
We project that carbon emissions will decrease over the next five financial years to 26.3 tCO2e by 2026/2027. This is a reduction of 72.7%.
Progress against these targets can be seen in the graph below:
5.0 Carbon Reduction Projects
The following environmental management measures and projects have been completed or implemented since the 2018/19 baseline. The carbon emission reduction achieved by these schemes equate to 29.3 tCO2e, a 30.4% reduction against the 2018/19 baseline.
There are a number of business-wide environmental management measures that support SRL to measure, manage and reduce our carbon emissions.
5.1 ISO 14001
We received ISO 14001 accreditation in April 2022. SRL now has an effective Environmental Management System in place.
5.2 Electric Vehicles
Our first EV delivery was on 14th January 2022. Since then our electric fleet has increased to 8 EVs under the OZED grant scheme. SRL’s employees and clients are able to charge their EVs from the 3 fast charging points at our Holbrook head office.
5.3 Elimination of Scope 2 Emissions
We replaced our diesel company van with an electric model in early 2023.
SRL moved to Octopus Energy in October 2022, providing 100% renewable electricity to its customers. This completely eliminated our Scope 2 emissions.
5.4 Hybrid Working
We continue to operate our flexible working scheme and encourage virtual meetings where possible as a result of Covid-19. This significantly reduces the need to travel to our offices or long distances for meetings. We encourage using public transport when travel is necessary which reduces our carbon emissions from business travel.
5.5 Waste Reduction
We are ensuring our acoustic testing laboratory is running more efficiently by:
- Reducing the amount of material we buy and dispose of by carefully deconstructing test set-ups, this
- Increases the reuse of materials for testing.
5.6 Carbon Offsetting
In November 2019 we had 118 solar panels installed on our laboratory roof, each capable of producing 285W.
At SRL, offsetting is a last step and will not be prioritised over making real reductions in our carbon emissions through schemes we implement ourselves. We have not entered into any UK-based certified carbon offsetting scheme such as the Woodland Carbon Code or the Peatland Code. Any offsetting activities through these schemes in the future will be transparently managed through SRL if there is a need to use them in the future.
5.7 Looking Ahead
In the future, we will implement further measures, such as:
- Stop using LPG to fuel the underfloor heating in our new office extension by increasing the capacity of our renewable energy sources, whether that be through installing additional solar panels and/or a heat pump. This will allow us to significantly offset the carbon we generate in the operation of our business.
- Stop using petrol and diesel-fuelled private vehicles for business use by implementing schemes that require electric vehicles only to be used, e.g. hiring electric cars for site visits and meetings where public transport is not feasible.
These will reduce our Scope 1 LPG emissions by 100% relative to our baseline emissions, and significantly improve our Scope 3 emissions.
- Use materials for the laboratory that have a lower embodied carbon footprint, this includes materials that are made from renewable resources.
- Remove the linear take-make-waste system and adopt a circular economy mindset so materials re-enter the economy at their end of use. This means prioritising materials being reused, maintained, shared, repaired and/or refurbished before they are recycled.
We will continue to review our processes and systems to identify other practicable measures we can implement to improve our energy efficiency and carbon reduction rate.