Why this report

Human activity has caused the Earth’s temperature to rise by 1.1°C since 1880, leading to the climate crisis.

The consequences of this unsustainable approach include the loss of nature and biodiversity, increasingly extreme and destructive weather, rising sea levels and pollution of land, sea and air. Air pollution alone causes 7 million premature deaths globally every year.

To combat this, the United Nations has set targets to decarbonise our economies. Individual countries have formed plans and introduced legislation to achieve this as well as to recycle and to protect and restore the natural environment.

The UK Government has set a target for our economy to be ‘carbon net zero’ by 2050.

Businesses and other organisations are changing the way they work to lower emissions and reduce waste. Consumers are also being encouraged to modify their behaviour and change their lifestyles.

Local authorities – our customers – have set targets too, including decarbonising fleets and producing zero emissions. Private operators have similar goals. To achieve this, they all need to fully understand the sustainability of the products and services they purchase.

Consequently, as a supplier, we need to set out our stall to ensure the sustainability of our business activities are fully transparent to our customers. And we need our suppliers to provide the same transparency for us.

Environmental Governance Social

This first report will set a benchmark against which our progress can be assessed. It will highlight aspects of our business which we need to improve, alongside others where we can learn from success.

The focus of the report is on three areas recognised as being at the heart of sustainability: Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG). Businesses and other organisations around the world are being urged to follow a similar framework.

• The Environmental aspect encompasses the human impact on our planet, from climate change to water management.

• The Social aspect considers our impact on each other and how we can improve the well-being of individuals and societies. It includes issues ranging from promoting race and gender diversity to increasing customer satisfaction and employee engagement.

• Governance covers every topic from what is morally right and fair to what is safe and legal. Among them are issues as diverse as board composition, data security, management structure, pay scales and anti-corruption practices.

In this first report, covering 2021–22, we are reporting on what are known as Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions. These are different sources of greenhouse gas emissions that are categorised by the widely used global accounting tool, the Greenhouse Gas Protocol. We are also working on reporting Scope 3 emissions and will include them in our future reports.

Just as our stakeholders will be able to assess our sustainability, it is vital that we do the same. This is how we will drive improvement in all these areas.

And this is not only crucial to reaching our sustainability goals but also our commercial goals.

Social responsibility

Of course, environmental responsibility is not an isolated issue. It goes hand-in-hand with social responsibility too. This means taking a similarly responsible approach to the well-being of our staff, the communities we live in, the customers and suppliers we work with and society as a whole.

With that in mind, this report also outlines our activities relating to those other aspects of our business.

Transparency

Finally, as this first report is about setting a benchmark, we need an appropriate starting point. 2021 is the period we’ve chosen. By the start of that year, we had overcome most of the issues faced during the pandemic when activities were by no means normal.

The start of a project like this, in a business of our size and scope, is challenging. Inevitably, there are inconsistencies, such as areas in which we need to harmonise reporting and measuring processes.

As a result, while the company operates in many different markets around the world, this first report is largely focused on our core UK operations. Where facts and figures have a different basis, we will flag this up and explain how they are derived to ensure full transparency. Other parts of our operations will come into line with our core business in the very near future so that they can be included in subsequent reports.