2022 Carbon Report

At Cynnal Cymru – Sustain Wales, we are continually working to reduce our environmental impact as much as possible. This report documents our carbon emissions for the third reporting year (April 2021 to April 2022) and the steps we are taking to reduce our carbon footprint and progress towards Net Zero.

Our carbon footprint (2022)

Our carbon footprint

11.6
tCO2e

(metric tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions)

The Cynnal Cymru team show off their hand-made wreaths created during a holiday party.
Cynnal Cymru staff member, Sylvia, pushes her bike after commuting to a train station.

Average footprint per employee

Within our reporting period (April 2021 – April 2022), Cynnal Cymru – Sustain Wales had eight FTE (Full Time Equivalent) employees, making our average footprint per employee:

1.2
tCO2e

(metric tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions)

How did we calculate our carbon footprint?

To calculate our emissions for each financial year we used a software called Normative. This allowed us to calculate emissions even though we do not own offices and pay bills other than rent. We used a spend-based method for Scope 3 emissions as this is currently the only data we have available.

What's included?

What isn't included (for now)?

Breakdown

0

Scope 1

5.8

Scope 2

5.8

Scope 3

11.6

All scopes

You might be thinking, ‘Why are their Scope 2 emissions and Scope 3 the same and there are no emissions from Scope 1?’.  This is because we do not own company cars and buildings, and our rent included energy bills, so we did not have our direct emissions (Scope 1). However, with data about our office floor space and number of employees we were able to measure emissions from the use of electricity (Scope 2) and from products and services we buy, staff travel and commute (Scope 3). Due to the pandemic, we spent significantly less time traveling and commuting as well as purchasing goods and services hence our emissions were much lower.

How do the 2022 statistics compare to previous years?

Our emissions increased have been steadily increasing due to three key factors:

  • We increased our staff count from four in 2019 (our baseline) to five in 2020, then six in 2021 and eight in 2022;
  • We moved to a larger (rented) office, where we are now paying gas and electricity bills;
  • We changed how we work by transitioning into complete remote working during 2020 and then into our current hybrid model, which has reduced our impact working in an office which required a commute to working only from home and eventually moved to a hybrid mode of work this reduced our impact on climate associated with travel.

We also bought laptops and invested in other services to facilitate continued remote working, which will reduce our business travel and commute time over a long-term period.

Our decarbonisation plan

We’re committed to Net Zero by 2050. This deadline might seem a long way ahead, but we recognise that in order to reduce our emissions, we need to focus on bringing down our footprint through reductions rather than offsets. Given that we have limited control over our supply chain and that low carbon solutions or products are not always available, we also know that it will take time to decarbonise our Scope 3 emissions.

Science-based targets, in line with 1.5 degrees, will see us reduce our footprint by 21% (at a minimum) by 2025. We will then use the data we have captured about our own emissions to accelerate our actions and reduce our real net zero timeline. We will work to achieve this in the following ways:

7.26
5.74
4.16
2.7

Total Emissions (tCO2e)

2019

Target Total Emissions (tCO2e)

2025

Target Total Emissions (tCO2E)

2030

Target Total Emissions (tCO2e)

2035

Based upon SBTi’s recommendations, these targets account for:

Scope 1 & 2 emissions

Scope 1 emissions refer to the Green House Gas (GHG) emissions that we make directly as an organisation. This could include emissions from company vehicles or from hosting events. Scope 2 emissions are those that we make indirectly from the generation of purchased energy, such as those produced from the energy or electricity an organisation buys to heat or cool a building.

Cynnal Cymru office

Home offices

Scope 3 emissions

Scope 3 emissions are all the indirect emissions that an organisation is responsible for, up and down its value chain. For example, the emissions caused by the products that it purchases from a supplier, as well as those produced by customers using or disposing of the organisations own products. 

Electronic equipment

IT services and software

Paper and plastic purchases

App and website

Business travel and hotel stays

Deliveries

General waste

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