The Britannic Carbon Neutral Plan

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: 2018

Additional details relating to the Baseline Emissions calculations

In December 2022 we started work to develop Carbon Reduction Strategies for Britannic’s ongoing commitment to the management and reduction of our business-related carbon emissions. We recorded our progress against our net zero target by establishing the year 2018 as our baseline year. Since then, we have gradually reduced our baseline emissions by over 56%. The primary operations and activities that accounted for Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions in the baseline year 2018, included the use of fuel for company vehicles and electricity consumption. The baseline year emissions covered 100% of Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions. Scope 3 emissions included Purchased goods and services, Fuel and energy-related activities, Waste generated in operations, Business travel and Employee commuting. Our baseline deviates from the requirements of PPN 06/21 as there was no historic reporting in Scope 3 for Upstream transportation and distribution and Downstream transportation and distribution.

*Up to December 2023

Emissions Reductions Targets

In order to continue our progress to achieving Net Zero, we have adopted the following carbon reduction targets.

A gradual carbon emission reduction over the next five years to 151 tCO2e by the end of 2028 - this is a reduction of 35%.
A further reduction of 40% by the end of 2032.
A further reduction of 40% by the end of 2037.
A further reduction of 40% by the end of 2042.
A further reduction of the remaining percentage allowing us to achieve net zero emissions by 01/01/2050.
We project that our carbon emissions will decrease by 232 tCO2e by 2047. This is a reduction of 96% against our baseline.

Progress against these targets can be seen in the graph below:

Carbon Reduction Projects

Completed Carbon Reduction Initiatives

We are strongly committed to integrating the best environmental practices into all business activities. We accept our environmental responsibilities and recognise the obligation to reduce the impact of our business activities on the environment. We are continually adopting the best practices and assisting, where possible, in developing innovative solutions to the environmental issues and problems faced by the telecommunications sector. We conduct all activities in full knowledge of, and in compliance with, the requirements of applicable environmental legislation and approved codes of practice. While assessing the environmental impact of our past, current, and likely future operations, we focus on fully integrating environmental considerations and objectives into our business decisions.

We also continuously seek to:

Minimise the consumption of natural resources, including energy, water, and raw materials, as far as is economically feasible
Prevent pollution and minimise emissions
Reduce the production of waste through effective waste management and recycling procedures, as well as disposing of unavoidable waste in such a way as to minimise its environmental impact.

Our Internal Network and Data Center Overhaul Project saw us reduce and replace old datacenter and network equipment with new, power efficient models and virtual environment. Our data center suppliers use 100% clean and renewable energy across all operations. The energy is procured from certified renewable source generators such as wind, solar, biomass and hydro and they hold the Renewable Guarantees of Origin (REGO) certificates and Guarantees of Origin (GoOs). While ‘single use’ plastic is not used in the products we provide, we encourage all our suppliers to use non plastic packaging where possible.

Due to Covid Pandemic travel restrictions, we have further reduced the amount of our CO2 emissions as a result of all our staff working from home since March 2020. We promote flexible working arrangements going forward and continue investment in technologies enabling us to interact remotely by means of reducing business travel. To tackle impacts beyond our direct operations, we operate a supplier management programme which checks our key suppliers’ sustainability priorities and will be integrating those into contracts going forward.

Strategies and Further Carbon Reduction Initiatives

We are further developing our carbon net zero strategy to ensure we stay on track to achieving net zero emissions by 2050. To ensure our employee commitment and engagement with the subject, this year we plan to run a sustainability awareness programme to further embed sustainability considerations into all business processes, as well as to help our employees working from home make sustainable choices which will align with our carbon net-zero targets.

In the first quarter of this year, we implemented timers to automatically switch off lights and screens in not used areas in Britannic House. Later this year, our supply chain management will see us setting targets for supplier chain decarbonisation and reporting against them with further net zero programmes over the next five years. We plan to further strengthen our environmental management practices by developing an environmental management system encompassing all business operations, allowing us to meet the requirements of ISO 14001.

We are continuing to seek and evaluate opportunities to further minimise energy and resource use in our office and both datacentres. Our current electricity contract type for Britannic House is ‘Zero Carbon Energy for Business’ where 74% of the fuels used to generate the electricity come from renewable resources. This is a fixed-term contract which will finish in September 2024 upon which it will be replaced with a more sustainable option ‘Renewable Energy for Business’, where 100% of the fuels used to generate the electricity come from renewable resources. Both of our datacentres and hosted environment run on 100% renewable energy across all operations.

Declaration and Sign Off

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 greenhouse gas 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].