HP’S CARBON FOOTPRINT ASSESSMENT & OFFSETTING 2022/23
16/7/2024
Our assessment
HarrisonParrott Group’s Carbon Footprint assessment was conducted by Carbon Footprint Ltd. Our 2022/23 assessment included our staff business travel (including flights, trains, grey fleet, buses, car hire), staff commuting, homeworking, office energy usage and sources, and office equipment purchases. Our total emissions between September 2022 and August 2023 came to 313.87 tCO₂e. Compared to last year’s assessment, our total emissions have increased by 175%. This is 18% lower than our baseline year of 2018/19. Emissions have increased due to HPG and the classical music industry operating again at pre-COVID-19 levels, which is reflected in our increase in business travel.
Our most significant emission source is flights, accounting for 78% of HarrisonParrott Group’s carbon footprint.
We also assessed our combined office’s energy consumption, and gas oil is the most significant contributor to our office’s carbon footprint.
Rail travel accounts for 88% of the total miles travelled to and from work, and produces 72% of our total commuting emissions.
What’s next?
To continue to improve our carbon footprint reduction as the business grows, we aim to support HarrisonParrott Group by:
- Supporting internal processes and systems which improve our operational aims to increase business travel efficiency
- Enhance and streamline our strategic travel by making the best use of staff time in locations e.g. reduction of one-off flights for one event
These measures and mindset changes will reduce our overall carbon footprint by making travel decisions more consolidated and rationalised.
Alongside this, we will:
- continue to cut back on non-essential flights and book economy-class seats
- encourage colleagues to travel by train instead of short-haul flights whenever possible
- improve our office energy reporting to gain more accurate data
- continue with our internal office reuse, reduce, recycle ethos by using sustainable and organic foods, tap water, reducing print, promoting our cycle-to-work scheme, supporting remote working, and purchasing energy-efficient electronic equipment, amongst other initiatives across HPG and associated brands.
- to advocate for ‘Earth as a stakeholder’ across internal and external activities, sharing knowledge and best practices across the industry
How did we offset our emissions?
After assessing a number of worthy carbon-offsetting solutions, HPG staff have voted to offset our emissions with the Zambia Western Province Safe Water Project, a project verified by Gold Standard.
Although progress has been made over the last decade, less than 50% of the rural Zambian population has access to safe water, with the majority relying on unsafe water sources such as hand-dug wells or streams. The consumption and use of unsafe water have significant health impacts, with waterborne and diarrheal diseases being the third highest cause of death and disability in the country. The high climatic variability in the region, resulting in frequent flooding and droughts, further compounds the stress on local communities.
Nearly 90% of the rural population relies on wood as their primary energy source, and for those that have no choice but to boil water for purification, this contributes to a major source of hazardous household air pollution and carbon emissions. Borehole handpumps offer communities a reliable means of accessing clean groundwater aquifers, and many have been installed over the past few decades. However, without regular maintenance, they have often fallen into disrepair. The project rehabilitates and maintains these vital safe water sources, trains the communities on best WASH practices, and builds the capacity of local communities to manage and maintain the water sources into the future.
Choosing this project also means we have adhered to UN sustainable development goals 3 (good health and wellbeing), 5 (gender equality),6 (clean water and sanitation) and 13 (climate action).
Achieving carbon neutral plus status
HPG offset an additional 25% of our footprint (a total of 393 tonnes CO2e) and is now certified as Carbon Neutral Plus.
To date, we have offset 881.61 tonnes of CO2e by supporting projects that have reduced deforestation in the Amazon, supported community projects by providing cooking stoves and borehole rehabilitation in India and Uganda, safe water in Zambia, and planting 383 trees in the UK.
