Carbon Reduction Plan 🌱


Scope

Sustainability and environmental responsibility are core values at Interact. Our commitment to reducing our carbon footprint is central to our vision of being a forward-thinking, socially responsible organisation. By prioritising carbon reduction, we aim to create a positive impact on the planet while fostering a workplace that supports innovation, efficiency, and resilience.

In alignment with national and global efforts to combat climate change, our Carbon Reduction Plan outlines the steps we are taking to minimise our environmental impact. This plan not only reflects our dedication to sustainability but also reinforces our commitment to being a leader in responsible business practices.

Purpose

The Paris Agreement, a legally binding international treaty on climate change, was adopted by 196 Parties, including the UK, at COP21. The goal of the treaty is to limit global warming to below 2 degrees, preferably 1.5 degrees Celsius. To achieve this goal, countries aim to reach global peaking to GHG emissions as soon as possible to achieve a climate neutral world by mid-century (2050).

Additionally, to stabilise global temperatures, emissions of long-lived gases like CO2 must be reduced to Net Zero. Therefore, the purpose of this CRP is to provide an overview of how ICC aims to become Net-Zero in line with the Paris Agreement.

Policy Statement

Interact understands the importance of increasing environmental awareness and the critical need to address the climate emergency. The Company has been working on the projects stated within this policy to contribute to global Net Zero emission targets. Our long-term aspiration is to have zero carbon emissions for scope 1 and 2 and minimal carbon for scope 3, which may be offset to obtain carbon neutrality. To achieve our goals, there must be a shift in culture across the business to a greater awareness and acceptance of responsibility for carbon emissions. This shift will be attained if there are strong and visible institutional aspirations, actions, and incentives.

We are passionate about understanding the impact our decisions and activities have on the environment and communities across the UK.

Interact is seeking to become carbon neutral by 2040. To provide a baseline upon which to measure improvements Interact must first establish its current carbon footprint. This work will be used to inform the Company’s Carbon Reduction Plan.

The reporting period covers the 2023 financial year. This is to be the baseline year and will be used to inform the Carbon Reduction Plan. Subsequent reports will be published annually to ensure continuous measurement towards carbon neutrality.

Baseline Footprint Methodology:

Interact has used the guidance set out in the HM Government Environmental Reporting Guidelines (1) as this has been created for use in legislative reporting within the UK. As it is based on the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol Initiative Corporate Accounting and reporting Standard (2), elements of this document have also been included.

Emissions data has been obtained by multiplying the Interact’s activity data, where available, with the conversion factors (3) developed by the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS).

Carbon emissions are shown in tCO2e (tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent). This is a measure of how much a gas contributes to global warming, relative to carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide equivalent of a gas is calculated by multiplying its mass (in tonnes) by the gas’ global warming potential (GWP) over 100 years.

What has been calculated:

The organisational boundary determines the operations included within the carbon footprint calculation and has been used to determine the emissions that are direct (come from sources owned by Interact) and indirect (are a consequence of the Interact’s activities but occur at sources owned or controlled by other entities).

There are two options for setting the Organisational Boundaries, the equity share (4) or the control approach. The Company has based the calculation of the emissions from the delivery of its operations; therefore, the control approach has been used.

The Operational Boundary is set by categorising the emissions as direct or indirect. To help further delineate emission sources and improve transparency, three ‘scopes’ are defined for reporting purposes:

  • Scope 1 – These are all direct emissions released from the activities of an organisation. For example, fuel combustion from fleet vehicles.
  • Scope 2 – These are any indirect emissions from electricity purchased and used by the organisation. For example, the purchased electricity providing power and lighting to the offices.
  • Scope 3 – These are any other indirect emissions from the activities of the organisation, occurring from sources that they do not own or do not control. They are usually the greatest share of the carbon footprint, covering emissions such as those associated with employee commuting or procurement.
Scope 1-

Direct Emissions

Scope 2

Energy – Indirect Emissions

Scope 3 –

Other Indirect Emissions

Fuel Combustion

Natural gas, gas oil, petrol for heating Interact’s Buildings

Consumption of purchased:

• Electricity

for Interact sites

Employee Commuting @
Fugitive Emissions –

Refrigerants

Employee Commuting

Waste Disposal for Council buildings

Water supply & treatment for Interact sites #
Waste Disposal

 

Procurement (products/services)

 

@ Estimated based on available information.  The company will aim to improve the accuracy of this information in 2024.

# Limited information is available for Interact’s Richmond site, where utilises are included in the property rent/business service charges.

What has been excluded

It has not been possible to include all emissions within Scope 3. The carbon impact of staff commuting is based on several assumptions; average number of staff number over the year, private vehicle uses from the employee transport survey (2023), estimated average commute (distance in miles), and business travel by rail, has been omitted due to availability of data.

Some procurement emissions are excluded. For example, some smaller sundry office supplies, vending machine products, and work undertaken by third parties as part of a contract arrangement with the Interact. This work can range from contractors work in purchasing of equipment or providing in site services. The information is either not readily available, held, or cannot be easily converted into carbon emissions at the current time.

Fugitive emissions are those that are not physically controlled but result from unintentional release of GHGs in pressurised equipment. For Interact, these would apply to refrigerants, particularly from air conditioning provide by the Landlord as part of shared building services. It has not been technically feasible to include fugitive emissions.

Carbon offsets refer to any activity that compensates for the emission of greenhouse gases by providing an emission reduction elsewhere. In accordance with the Guidelines the activity should meet DEFRA’s good quality criteria; namely the offset project would not have happened otherwise, is permanent, and has been validated by an independent and accredited third party. An example of an offset would be a renewable energy project such as a solar farm. There are no carbon offsets to be considered within this report.

Data Quality

The quality of the data is important in ensuring accuracy in carbon reporting. The data provided has been extracted from utility bills, waste management invoices, and the relevant anonymised employee.

Company Business travel is limited and has been taken from mileage expenses claims. The size and type of vehicle are not recorded, only the mileage. Therefore the ‘average car’ conversion factor has been used in the calculation.

Interact operations are contained with shared building/facilities and the electricity and water consumption is not, for some areas, available on individual ‘Interact’ metered basis. As a result, in some instance, multiple ‘non-Interact’ areas being billed as one with Interact or data may not be available. For the Richmond site all utilities (e.g. electricity and water) are included within the building service charges and not available for inclusion in this report.

Baseline Emissions Footprint

Baseline Year: 2021/22

Our baseline emissions are stated in the table below.

Interact started their carbon journey in 2021/22. We began to understand and calculate our emissions in 2022/23. As a starting point, Interact collected data regarding their customers, employees, procurement, and their building emissions.

Additional Details relating to the Baseline Emissions calculations.

 

This is Interact’s second Carbon Reduction report. Our baseline year is our fiscal year 2021/22.   The baseline report included Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions for all our UK locations.
Baseline year emissions:
EMISSIONS TOTAL (tCO2e)
Scope 1 We have no Emissions Total for Scope 1 (combustibles) as we do not use these fuels within our sites and have no company cars.
Scope 2 (Purchased electricity) # Site Electricity (102.2)
Scope 3 (Included Sources)
   Category 1 (Purchased goods and Services) Printer Paper (recycled) (1.68)
   Category 2 (Capital goods) * Office Equipment (112.4)
   Category 3 (Fuel and energy related activities) N/a.  Included in Scope 2
   Category 4 (Upstream transportation/distribution) We have no upstream distribution
   Category 5 (Waste generated in Operation) Water Supply (1.03)

Water Treatment (1.29)

General waste (0.18)

Mixed recycling (0.21)

   Category 6 (Business Travel) Awaiting further detail
   Category 7 (Employee Commuting) ^ 1,465.9
   Category 8 (Upstream leased assets) We have no upstream leased assets
   Category 9-13 (Downstream scope) We have no downstream distribution
   Category 14 (Franchises) We have no franchises
   Category 15 (Investments) We have no investment activity
 
Total Emissions 1,684.9

 

* Source: calculation based on https://netzerotools.zerowastescotland.org.uk/office-equipment-calculator

# Data incomplete and estimated due to billing and metering issues with Energy provider and shared office space provider. We are pressuring for more information.

^ Estimated based on staff travel survey and average commuting distance.  More detailed analysis planned for 2023.

The table shows that there are two clear areas that make up the emissions produced by the Interact’s operations. These are site Electricity consumption from Scope 2 (6.7%) and Scope 3 by the Company employees and procurement (93.3%).

Scope 2 Emissions

Scope 2 emissions are any indirect emissions from electricity purchased and used by the Interact.

Scope 3 Emissions

Scope 3 covers indirect emissions from the activities of Interact and its employees, occurring from sources that they do not own or do not control. Key Scope 3 emissions are made up of purchasing office equipment (incl. PCs, Monitors, Desk and Office chairs), and Employee commuting (approx. 43% staff travel by car or car chare (source: employee survey 2023))

Current Emissions Reporting

Reporting Year: 01 January 2023 – 31 December 2023

EMISSIONS TOTAL (tCO2e)
Scope 1

0

Scope 2

154.2

Scope 3 (Included Sources)

862.7

Total Emissions   1,016.9

Emissions Reduction Targets

The following environmental management measures and projects have been completed or implemented since the 2022 baseline.

The carbon emission reduction achieved by these schemes will be measured against the 2022 baseline.

Interact has already brought into action several measures, these include:

  • Using a third-party ‘Carbon neutral’ data centre
  • All lights being replaced with LED lighting and low energy light-bulbs.
  • Motion sensor technology for Lighting control
  • Air Conditioning Controls have had their minimum and maximum ranges capped.
  • Air Conditioning Units on set timers

To continue our progress to achieving Net Zero, we will continue to review are carbon emissions and adopted carbon reduction strategies wherever possible and practical.

We project that carbon emissions will decrease by 10% by the end of 2025 i.e., 168 tCO2e.

We intend to achieve a 50% decrease in emissions by 2030 i.e., 842 tCO2e, and we intend to achieve Net Zero ahead of the 2050 deadline.

Carbon Reduction Projects

The reductions will be achieved primarily through managing the energy efficiency of the utilities providers and purchasing activities. We have also taken actions to review employee travel arrangements and activity to reduce carbon emissions or look to offset and build towards a net zero capacity within the organisation.

In time for our 2025 reduction target of 10%, we will implement further measures such as:

  • Increasing existing recycling initiatives for staff to reduce ‘general’ waste to landfill.
  • Continued energy efficiency across all sites.
  • Switch to renewable energy source providers
  • Reducing waste to landfill through new waste contracts.
  • Reducing emissions from business travel (business travel is minimal)
  • Assessing the introduce a new ‘net zero’ procurement policy.
  • Addressing “hot spots” in our procurement process and assessing ‘net zero’ vendors
  • Home working where practical and contractually permitted.
  • Active cycle to work scheme.

Location & Travel

Private transport is one of the world’s biggest sources of Greenhouse Gases (GHG) with emissions rising every year.

The location of Interact’s buildings is highly accessible via public transport, and bus services and trains are in close proximity (5 to 10-minute walk).

Buses and trains are crucial to reducing congestion on our roads, and zero emission buses help tackle air pollution and climate change. It has been reported that if everyone took the bus instead of the car just twice a month, by 2050 this would create a reduction on 15.8 million tons of CO2. In England, around 60% of 1–2-mile trips are made by car. We could all reduce our personal carbon emissions by walking more of those short journeys, whether it be to the shops, the station, or to work.

Changes in the way employees travel to work could have a significant influence. We will work with employees to raise awareness and promote further reduction in private transport and increase usage of public transport and cycle to work schemes. A new secure cycle storage facility has been installed in Q1 of 2024. Employees choosing to walk, cycle or take public transport as opposed to a car could lower scope 3 emissions considerable. This will be a focus for the organisation going forward.

Homeworking

For our clients and campaigns that allow homeworking, Interact has around 100-150 employees working from home. While employees will use their own electricity which will contribute to Interact’s overall emissions, it will cease their commute emissions and as mentioned above, this is one way to help reduce transport’s carbon footprint. Moreover, it will potentially lower Interact’s scope 3 emissions.

The benefits of homeworking do not stop at lower commute emissions. Homeworking also encourages employees to use company laptops as opposed to a desktop. Laptops are 80% more energy efficient than desktops which is beneficial for homeworking employees. However, for on-site employees who do use desktops, we will continue to look at making them more energy efficient. One way to do this is to set the desktops to enter a power-saving mode after a short amount of idle time.

Renewable Energy

Wherever possible Interact will aim to use Energy provider with a strong renewable component and commitment.

On-Site Working: plastic and paper

It has been suggested that homeworking can reduce a company’s carbon emissions as it will reduce waste as employees are not able to print out and subsequently, wastepaper or use single use plastic. However, not all our employees have the possibility to work from home, therefore, for on-site working to reduce Interact’s carbon emissions, we will look to implement certain changes on-site.

All employees should think before printing as the production of paper requires enormous amounts of resources such as wood, water, and energy. Access to printers is restricted and before printing, employees should ask themselves if it is essential. However, if it is, to make it more climate-friendly, print double-sided, and use recycled or certified paper. To implement this across the business, Interact will buy recycled or certified paper for the printers, where possible. A smaller, more cost-effective change is to promote this awareness so that employees understand the impact that printing has on the environment and for our carbon emissions.

Plastic is another material that is used once and thrown away. Creating a plastic-free office will enable the business to further reduce its carbon emissions and creating a sustainable employee culture.

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 standard1 and uses the appropriate Government emission conversion factors for greenhouse gas company reporting2.

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) Standard3.

This Carbon Reduction Plan has been reviewed and signed off by the board of directors (or equivalent management body).

Signed on behalf of the Interact:

Gary Rodgus

Head of Quality & Compliance

Date: 22.06.24  

1 https://ghgprotocol.org/corporate-standard

2 https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/government-conversion-factors-for-company-reporting

3 https://ghgprotocol.org/standards/scope-3-standard

4 Under the equity share approach, a company accounts for GHG emissions from operations according to its economic interest, which reflects the Company’s rights for any risks and rewards.

Version 3.0 Last updated 22/06/2024