Carbon Reduction Plan

Equal Experts UK Ltd is committed to achieving Net Zero Carbon emissions by 2030.

This plan currently covers the UK only, which accounts for most of our revenue and emissions in the period.

Greenhouse Gas Emissions reporting

We calculate and report on our greenhouse gas emissions based on our financial year (FY), which starts in April, not by calendar year.

Reporting period 
Emissions in tCO2e FY 2019/20 Baseline FY 2020/21   FY 2021/22 FY 2022/23  FY 2023/24
Current
Scope 1 0 0 0 0 0
Scope 2 845 3 1 6 6
Scope 3 n/a 163 178 849 885
Total 845 166 180 855 891

Table 1: Summary of our emissions for the last five years to the nearest integer.

Notes on our reporting

  • We use standard tons of CO2e emissions (tCO2e) and financial year 2019/20 as our Baseline for reporting purposes.
  • We do not generate Scope 1 emissions as we do not directly burn fossil fuels.
  • Our Scope 2 emissions cover offices that are serviced only
  • We generate and report Scope 3 emissions from the following sub-categories:
    • 2. Capital goods (refresh cycle of IT equipment)
    • 6. Business travel
    • 7. Staff commuting (including work from home, known as ‘teleworking’). This includes estimates for our permanent staff and our supply chain sub-contractors
  • We do not generate Scope 3 emissions in the following sub-categories:
    • 4. Upstream transportation and distribution activities
    • 5. Waste generated in operations
    • 9. Downstream transportation and distribution

Financial Year 2023/24 (last reporting period)

We made no changes to our assumptions for this year.

  • There is no change in our Scope 2 emissions as our managed office space has not changed so our calculations remain the same.
  • Our Scope 3 emissions were as follows:
    • 2. Capital goods (refresh cycle of IT equipment) – 54.5 tCO2e.
    • 6. Business travel – 280.4 tCO2e from a significant increase in travel, particularly for conferences and events.
    • 7. Staff commuting and working from home – 550 tCO2e from equipment and utilities increase due to a small increase in employees.

Financial Year 2022/23

We made no changes to our assumptions for this year but have recalculated office equipment and heating from working from home and have added Scope 3 subcategory two information.

  • The increase in Scope 2 emissions was driven by increased rented office space.
  • Our Scope 3 emissions were as follows:
    • 2. Capital goods (refresh cycle of IT equipment) – 59 tCO2e.
    • 6. Business travel – 188.7 tCO2e from a significant increase in travel, particularly for conferences and events.
    • 7. Staff commuting and working from home – 600 tCO2e from equipment and utilities, increase due to increased employees and more commuting.

Financial Year 2021/22

We reviewed our assumptions and recalculated our Scope 3 usage for the previous year to include better estimates for Scope 3 subcategory 6 and better quality data from our travel records for subcategory 7.

  • This led to a slight decrease in Scope 2 in terms of electricity use.
  • Our Scope 3 emissions were as follows:
    • 6. Business travel – 28 tCO2e from travel, which increased due to increased travel after the Covid pandemic
    • 7. Staff commuting and working from home -149.8 tCO2e

Financial Year 2020/21

We re-calculated these in September 2022, to revisit our assumptions, particularly for Scope 3 emissions.

  • Scope 2 emissions dropped as we spent less time in offices.
  • Our Scope 3 emissions were as follows:
    • 6. Business travel – 0.7 tCO2e. This is low due to the Covid pandemic
    • 7. Staff commuting and working from home – 161.9 tCO2e

Financial Year 2019/20 (Baseline)

  • These are our emissions produced in the past and are the reference point against which future emissions are measured.
  • This was our first reporting period, and we did not measure or estimate any Scope 3 emissions.

Emissions forecast

A bar chart showing actual and forecast carbon emissions, starting in 2021/2022 and forecast until 2028/2029. The graph shows actual emissions as laid out under heading Greenhouse Gas Emissions. Forecast figures are explained under the heading Emissions Forecast

We have forecasted our emissions over the next 5 years based on current emissions.

We have revised our projections based on the actual increase seen over the last two year, which are driven by a consistent increase in travel per person, as well as more people. As predicted last year, we do not see many opportunities to reduce our actual emissions without a significant restriction on travel (including commuting), which, as a consulting company, is not reasonable. So we continue to take other steps to meet our Net Zero target.

Meeting our Net Zero Reduction Targets

Current Net Zero Activities

Equal Experts Ltd has had a change of ownership this year that required the attention of our executive board, so we have had to delay the work to define our carbon offset programme. The internal working group continues to monitor opportunities and review carbon reduction projects, but these haven’t been approved in this reporting period. We expect approval early in 2025/26 period.

This portfolio of carbon offset projects will offset our emissions for the previous year and will establish a model for the future in the UK.

Scope 2

  • We have reviewed our office occupancy and have no plans to change our office provider who already has a BREEAM rating of Good.

Scope 3

  • We continue to collaborate with cloud technology providers Amazon, Google and Microsoft, to help our large-scale customers optimise cloud usage to reduce energy consumption.

Board Approval

This Carbon Reduction Plan has been completed in accordance with PPN 06/21 and associated guidance and reporting standards for Carbon Reduction Plans.

Emissions have been recorded and reported in accordance with the published reporting standard for Carbon Reduction Plans and the GHG Reporting Protocol using the appropriate Government emission conversion factors for greenhouse gas company reporting

Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions have been reported following SECR requirements, and the required subset of Scope 3 emissions have been reported following the published reporting standard for Carbon Reduction Plans and the Corporate Value Chain Standard.

This Carbon Reduction Plan has been reviewed and signed off by the board of directors.

Sam McGregor – Chief Operating Officer – 1st November 2024

Note: Our Carbon Reduction Plans are published within six months of the end of our financial year as specified by the Technical Standard for Completion of Carbon Reduction Plans. There may be occasions when the reporting period of the existing plan has expired but an updated Carbon Reduction Plan has not yet been published.