1. Background
1.1 Climate change is increasingly high on everyone’s agenda. It is recognised by Governments and individuals alike, that we must place environmental sustainability at the heart of our decision-making.
1.2 We recognise that as a business we must balance the amount of greenhouse gases we produce; with the amount we remove from the atmosphere. When balanced out, this becomes a net zero situation
1.3 Our vision is to deliver upon our continued promise to deliver a quality service for a cleaner environment and continue to supply exceptional cleaning services in the UK. To achieve this, we want to continue working with our existing customer base – as well as attracting new, larger customers. We know that this commitment to becoming net zero will demonstrate our leadership in strategic issues as well as our focus on providing great products and services.
1.4 Wetton has committed to achieving net zero by 2035, adopting a range of initiatives to achieve this. We will utilise our own resources as well as consultants to assist us in achieving this aim.
1.5 The plan will identify our existing position and challenges as well as four principles to be tackled to achieve our aims.
1.6 The plan is linked with our existing Environmental Policy Statement, document ref WCSL-QHSE-PS-003, as well as retain our accreditations with ISO14001 and ISO20121.
2. Baseline Year Emissions 2020
Methodology GHG protocol
EMISSIONS BREAKDOWN BY SCOPE 2020 UK Emissions Base Year UK Emissions
tCO2e tCO2e
Scope 1 239.02 239.02
Scope 2 5.60 5.60
Scope 3 8.31 8.31
Total Gross Scope 1 & 2 244.61 244.61
Total Scope 1, 2 & 3 (Greyfleet, T&D) 252.92 252.92
Total kgCO2e 252,922.21 252,922.21
Intensity Metric: tCO2e/£m turnover 19.26097 19.26097
Scope 1 & 2 UK Energy Consumption (kWh) 984,382.86 984,382.86
Scope 3 (Greyfleet, T&D) Energy Consumption (kWh) 30,987.14 30,987.14
Total UK Energy Consumption (kWh) 1,015,370.01 1,015,370.01
3. Existing position
3.1 Wetton has a turnover of c.£20m per annum. We have around 1250 employees, made up of people based at our client premises with management teams that travel across the country and a support services team based at our head office in Kent. We are not classed as a large company and therefore not mandatorily required to report on energy and carbon emissions within our financial accounts. However, this does not prevent us from driving and benchmarking our improvement on a periodic basis.
3.2 Since the baseline report we have implemented a number of planned improvements such as the accreditation to ISO20121, an increase of the number of electric and hybrid vehicles within our company fleet. We have also issued out training materials to all our staff to help them reduce energy consumption at home to help reduce their bills at the commencement of the energy crisis, as well as encourage them to take their knowledge into the workplace and onto the clients’ sites in which we work.
3.3 As cleaning service suppliers in a number of sectors including Corporate, Housing, Education, Hospitality and Local Authority; this provides many challenges for us as a company to achieve Net Zero including but not limited to;
(a) Seeking reassurance from our supply chain and partners regarding their own commitment to net zero
(b) Ensuring our offices are energy efficient, reducing energy use and making use of sustainable energy where possible
(c) Current use of petrol and diesel vehicles for sales executives, management teams, contract cleaning service delivery as well as employees commuting to the office.
(d) Recycling of components such as batteries, card and wood packaging and plastics, as well as domestic materials such as bottles, cans and paper
(e) Promotion of products that assist with environmental sustainability rather than contribute to the problem – such as chemicals and single use plastic.
3.4 Our strategy is two - fold. Firstly, we will identify improvements we can make ourselves, followed by seeking assistance from experts to calculate our carbon footprint for offsetting purposes.
4. Our four principles
4.1 Having identified the challenges from our existing position, we will focus our attentions on the following principles;
A. Waste and Recycling
The company has a systematic process for recycling at our head office but we are totally reliant on the facilities available at our clients’ site. We have identified recycled and sustainable products from our supply chain to help reduce the introduction of waste to our client site from our own service but we believe we have identified a gap in our service.
The recycling of old machinery that reaches end of life. Implementing a formal procedure for detailing the disposal of old machinery and providing the percentage that is to be recycled.
Ensuring that we continue to reduce or eliminate the use of plastic or any packaging will be achieved by working with our supply partners to source innovative products share our environmental commitments.
Target to improve disposal transparency and reduce CO2 emissions by 60%.
B. Switch to Electric and Hybrid Vehicles
This is the cause of the highest levels of CO2 emissions for our company. The company has a fleet of cars and vans which are a mixture of Electric, Hybrid, petrol and diesel vehicles. Our management teams, where a company vehicle is provided, will drive Electric or Hybrid Vehicles. Our contract vehicle fleet can be a mixed based on the requirements of the contract that they operate upon. We require technological improvements to increase mile ranges of vehicles to be able to switch our entire fleet across to electric. We will continue to review the technology and renew our fleet to improved vehicle emissions to reduce the impact on the environment.
Where vehicles are petrol or diesel, they are installed with Fleet Trackers which monitor driving behaviour and provide details report on the CO2 and where improvements can be made to driving styles to help reduce environmental impact.
We will continue to explore the viability of switching to electric vehicles and installing charging stations. However, we will also be realistic about employee location, charging capacities and overall business efficiency.
Our aim is to consider switching our entire fleet and encourage those staff that receive car allowances to use electric vehicles.
For our employees we will explore the Salary sacrifice scheme such as the ‘Electric Document Car Scheme’ to see if this can be supported by the company and have the ability to encourage employees to join a salary sacrifice scheme to switch to electric vehicles.
Target to switch vehicle fleet to electric and greener vehicles reduce CO2 emissions by 50%.
C. Energy Efficiency and Source
We currently utilise one head office building which underwent a refurbishment in 2016/2017 to implement all new double-glazed windows, roof insulation, efficient central heating and water systems, and implementation of energy efficient lighting. Whilst reducing energy consumption, we will also explore the installation of panels for the use of solar energy where practicable and financially viable. There is currently a review of extending the head office property with consultation taking place. Any proposal will include improvements to carbon emissions and include the implementation of sustainable energy generation.
The company is at the forefront of technological advances in the cleaning industry. We are committed to promoting ecologically friendly and sustainable products to our customers and will favour these over less environmentally sustainable products. This includes the introduction of battery-operated robotic cleaning machines which can be more productive and energy efficient and can be programmed to recharge during periods of less demand for energy use. Their batteries also containing the latest technology making them more energy efficient than older machines.
Target
• Implement planning proposals with improvements for energy reduction for our head office by December 2023. Reduce CO2 by 40% or greater
• By December 2023 All new machinery proposal to include robotic and latest energy efficient machinery available. Reduce CO2 Emission by 35%
D. Offsetting
We are committed to this challenge, whilst accepting that to balance our carbon footprint we must be fully supportive of investing in reputable and regulated projects. Unfortunately, we may have to wait for some technologies to catch up with our environmental requirements and constantly monitoring these technologies will help us to implement them as soon as they become available. However, in the meantime we will use offsetting to help work towards our goal of New Zero by 2030. Offsetting is the last step and not to be prioritised over making real reductions in carbon emissions. This will only be undertaken where the offset arrangements meet our moral, ethical and sustainability expectations.
5. Key Milestones
5.1 This plan will have a 7-year timeframe commencing in 2023.
5.2 Following approval of this headline plan – each department/work area will require specific action plans, aligned with the following headline milestones owned by QHSE Manager:
Timescale Milestone
April 2023 Achieve signed off plan, communicated to all staff, partners and customers
October 2023 Obtain the audit of the 12 months of energy consumption data over required assessment period Jan 2022 to Dec 2022.
November 2023 Each department has their own assigned plan for reductions.
March 2024 Waste and Recycling - Achieve internal improvements including waste reduction and recycling initiatives and reduction of fuel. Complete review of alternative product supplier
March 2024 Review of Suppliers environmental progress and continued accreditations - Review of suppliers to ensure maintain their ISO14001 accreditation and maintaining their Net Zero reduction of their plan.
April 2024 Review of fleet - Assess vehicle life for the coming year and possible switch to electric or more energy efficient vehicles.
July 2025 Energy efficiency and source - Review of Office energy provider for alternative greener energy supply
April 2026 Offsetting - Commission a consultant report to calculate our Carbon footprint and offset the remaining Carbon by investing in reputable and UN regulated schemes.
April 2027 Review plan and agree next steps.
6. Decision making
6.1 It is proposed that the Senior Management Team (SMT) of Wetton approve and sign off this plan, and promote its principles amongst all Wetton staff, partners and customers.
7. Next Review
7.1 We are awaiting the results of the 2023/24 GHG by our consultants and will review our set targets and adjust accordingly.
8. Communicating this plan
8.1 Following sign off, this plan will be promoted on our website, distributed to staff and partners to ensure they are aware of our commitment to the environment and the climate change agenda.
This Carbon Reduction Plan has been completed in accordance with 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 reporting. Note that Wetton are not legally required to report under the GHG Reporting Protocol and this is voluntary.
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.
This Carbon Reduction Plan has been reviewed and signed off by the board of directors.