Building on the establishment of our organisation’s baseline emissions in 2022, with the aim to improve our environmental effectiveness, we have published our 2024 annual review. As before, all of our operations were considered as in-scope, although we continue to omit our office consumable supplies from our Scope 3 Emission calculations as the supply chain is fragmented and any assumptions would prove unreliable.
Again, we utilised the UK Government’s GHG Conversion Factors, and the methodologies enshrined in ISO14064, PAS2060 and the Energy Institutes guidance on carbon management planning, and the key output for 2024 was a GHG Intensity Ratio of 20.73kg CO2e per client audit day which is a 49% increase in the 2023 figures.
Whilst this is a significant increase, the base emissions are still very low. The increase can be equated to the geographic expansion of our client base and the emissions associated with extended transport mileage to visit both fixed and temporary sites across the UK & Ireland. This transport emission aspect continues to be the most significant in the UK, contributing 29% of Net GHG emissions in 2023.
The UK professional services sector has a lower carbon intensity compared to industries like manufacturing or energy production, because our sector does not involve as much direct energy consumption or industrial processes that result in carbon emissions.
In order to address this trend, our Carbon Management Plan has renewed focus on audit planning with enhanced technologies and a new digital approach to location matching and hybrid audits (where permissible), as well as practical operations such as car sharing, in order to realign the intensity ratio profile and reduce the net GHG Emissions.
As compensation for our total tCO2e emissions detailed in our 2024 Annual Environmental Report, we are again investing in our supported Peatland restoration and UK woodland creation projects, through our partners Forest Carbon.
Credit Type: Pending Issuance Units (PIUs)
Assurance: Woodland Carbon Code
Location: Grantown on Spey, Highland, United Kingdom
The vision at Corriechuillie is to take low-grade agricultural land out of productive use, to create a 17ha area of native woodland for conservation and biodiversity.
Project 2: Hawkshaw
Credit Type: Pending Issuance Units (PIUs)
Assurance: Woodland Carbon Code
Location: Biggar, Borders, United Kingdom
Hawkshaw is a 26ha new native broadleaf woodland in the Scottish Borders. This woodland will be managed on a non-intervention basis and provide a range of benefits including rainwater interception, biodiversity, air quality, habitat, and amenity.
Credit Type: Pending Issuance Units (PIUs)
Assurance: Peatland Code
Location: Isle of Islay, Argyll and Bute, United Kingdom
Duich Moss is a Peatland restoration project on Islay, bordered by the River Laggan and north of the Duich River. Restoration activities are essential to rewet this area and prevent further erosion special scientific interest.
66.6% of the investment is in UK woodland projects that will capture CO2, conserve the natural habitat, and increase biodiversity. The growing trees will also provide wider co-benefits beyond climate mitigation, including flood alleviation, water quality improvements, habitat creation, employment, public access, sustainable timber and cleaner air.
33.3% of the investment is in Peatland restoration of degraded bog habitat, increasing the ability of the peatland to store water, support wildlife and mitigate the risk of flooding downstream, as well as reducing GHG emissions from the degraded peatlands which are still in excess of 23 million tonnes per year: around 5% of the UK’s total carbon footprint.
SCS investment in these projects is not for use for hard carbon offsetting claims, but rather to support nature in a quality assured and transparent way.
In order to practice what we preach, it is essential that SCS continue our Carbon reduction journey, and we hope our current and future clients join us in investing in the collective reduction, removal, and avoidance of carbon emissions. For those with an Environmental Management System this is a verifiable way of demonstrating impact reduction as required by the International Standard, ISO 14001.
Find out more about how our certification services can help your organisation by visiting our 14001 page on our website
