Carbon Neutral – Helping To Influence Change In Our Industry

Climate change is happening at an extremely fast pace, and we all have a responsibility to do whatever we can to address this crisis, businesses, and individuals alike. Even the smallest of actions can help.

Half of UK businesses are ‘targeting carbon neutrality by 2030’.  A survey conducted by ‘YouGov’ in 2019 of 502 UK businesses has found that almost half are aiming to be carbon-neutral by 2030, with 8% claiming they had already reached this milestone. Of the respondents, 93% agreed that climate change is both real and being driven, either in full or in part, by human activity.

Cortech is committed to lead by example by demonstrating to our employees and business community that we are planning for all our futures by voluntarily undertaking climate action.

Working with Carbon Neutral Britain, we are pleased to announce we have achieved Carbon Neutral Certification to ISO 14064 and GHG Emissions Protocol Accounting Standard. In doing so, we have underlined our continued investment and commitment to action.

Jason Blundell, Head of Sales and Marketing at Cortech, comments, “It has never been more important for businesses to step up and take account of the environmental impact associated with their operations and I would encourage all organisations to go through this process to baseline their CO2 emissions.”

By opting to be certified to the highest standards, all the carbon offsetting projects we use are regulated through:

·         Verra – Verified Carbon Standard (VCS),

·         Gold Standard – Voluntary Emission Reductions (VER),

·         United Nations – Certified Emission Reductions (CER) programmes.

These are the three largest, and most regulated carbon offsetting standards used globally by all businesses – this ensures the measurements, and tonnes of CO²e offset are accurate, and verified.

Our Journey So Far

Cortech started this journey back in 2009 when we completely refurbished our new office building from the foundation up. Looking to the future we installed above specification insulation and building technologies to mitigate the impact of our premises. This included air source pump heating, air conditioning and a rainwater harvesting system to reduce our usage of energy and water.

Most recently, we have installed a renewable energy generation infrastructure with the addition of a 10kW solar PV system which has big savings on electricity, and our unused energy is fed back for use by the national grid. This investment will significantly reduce our energy and carbon usage for our next annual assessment.

Leading by Example – Influencing Change Within Our Industry

As a Carbon Neutral Business, Cortech have created a competitive advantage in engaging with, and motivating staff with an issue that matters. Engaging stakeholders – almost half the UK workforce (42%) now want to work for an organisation that has a positive impact on the world, according to research carried out by consultancy Global Tolerance in 2015. The survey of more than 2,000 people found 44% thought meaningful work that helped others was more important than a high salary and 36% would work harder if their company benefitted society.

By becoming a Carbon Neutral Business, we aim to influence the market as an industry leader by tackling climate change. To do this we recognise we can help incentivise our suppliers, our customers, and the wider community to take positive action.

It is well documented how environmentally conscious brands attract more customers who are willing to select an environmentally friendly product or service. Customers and partners now more than ever are looking at how their products and services can be sourced more ethically and are choosing Carbon Neutral suppliers.

There are benefits for organisations becoming Carbon Neutral, a YouGov study of over 9000 consumers found that they were 67% more likely to choose a product or service from a business that is taking action on climate change and the environment.

The water industry is the first sector in the UK to commit to net zero carbon emissions by 2030. Peter Simpson, Chief Executive of Anglian Water, said: “Climate change is not just an environmental issue – it’s the defining social and economic challenge of our time. The issue is a genuine emergency, we have no time to waste. Achieving net zero is part of our industry’s wider commitment to always act in the public interest.”

Our first step as an influencer and technology supplier for the water sector, will be to incentivise our Platinum Technical Partners to the wider benefits of requiring to be Certified Carbon Neutral and in doing so making the end-to-end procurement route much more attractive, especially those in the public domain.

Furthermore, we have an ambition to influence and incentivise our choice of suppliers, it is early days yet, but we now have an opportunity to help increase the general momentum by selecting our suppliers based on our own principles to lead the industry in Voluntary Offsetting Initiatives, where businesses can choose to help tackle climate change.

“Offsetting is just the start of the process to Net Zero, knowing where your footprint is and putting together a Carbon Reduction Plan is crucial. Now that we have started our journey to make a difference to the environment, the real work begins. And we will continue to do more to become a greener, cleaner, and more sustainable business. Now and in the future.” Jason concludes.

By choosing to do so, we can help reduce climate change further – to help solve what is not just a UK but a Global climate crisis. UK Government Initiatives alone will not stop global climate change – we can all play our part now before it is too late.

To work with a company that really cares about its environmental impact, contact us today and find out more about Cortech, telephone +44(0)1925 750600 or email info@cortech.co.uk.