Effective date: 18th October 2022
Our purpose as an organisation is to improve the level of inclusion in the community of people with disabilities. Tackling the climate crisis is the most urgent challenge of our time. Open Inclusion is
committed to doing our part to contribute to creating a more inclusive, sustainable and equitable society.
Open is committed to having net zero emissions by 2026 and where possible reducing rather than offsetting our CO2 emissions. Whilst we have previously taken steps to reduce our GHG emissions, the baseline footprint reported in this Carbon Reduction Plan represents the first formal GHG assessment.
To calculate our emissions we followed the steps outlined by Defra – first establishing which emissions to count, then collecting data and finally using emissions factors to calculate emissions.
Open Inclusion moved to a fully remote operation in 2019 following the onset of Covid. As a result, we have accounted for remote working arrangements on our emissions. We expect to maintain this approach going forward.
Scope 1 covers all direct emissions from the activities of an organisation or under their control. Including fuel combustion on site such as gas boiler, fleet vehicles and air-conditioning leaks. As a fully remote organisation, Open Inclusion does not have a site and does not operate any fuel combustion, or own or operate any transportation. We do not expect this to change at any time in the future so would expect our emissions to remain zero for this scope area.
Scope 2 covers indirect emissions from electricity purchased and used by the organisation.
As a remote organisation, Open Inclusion does not purchase any electricity and therefore our Scope 2 emissions are zero.
Scope 3 covers all indirect emissions from Open’s business activities, occurring from sources that we don’t own or control.
Our Scope 3 emissions are the largest component of our operational emissions. These are made up of: home working and digital emissions and business travel.
This is not relevant to Open as we do not have any suppliers who deliver products to our business.
No waste is produced in our business operations as we have a fully digital/paperless remote working policy. This means that team members do not
generate waste in their homes.
We are a fully remote team, so there is no regular commuting to an office space. We do not anticipate that this will change in the future.
We are an inclusive research and design agency and do not require the downstream distribution of products. We do not expect this to change in the future.
Business travel is the largest contributor to our carbon emissions. To reduce this we have switched to largely online research sessions, however, some of our clients still require us to run in-person research and this requires travel. We also travel for some key client engagements for business development and client management.
The reported emissions for travel are made up of public transport use, calculated from the expenses/spend base model. They also include flights for business purposes.
As part of an international business, we sometimes need to fly to manage business development and client delivery. We have worked to reduce this as much as possible and use remote engagement where possible. EasyJet is our preferred flight supplier in Europe. In 2022 EasyJet have committed to offsetting all carbon emissions on behalf of their passengers.
The impact of this is that for 2022 (our baseline reporting year) we are reporting lower emissions. We would expect this to increase next year if EasyJet removes this offset. The volume of business travel is expected to remain steady over the next period as we come out of covid.
Our home working emissions have been calculated by collecting data from the Open Inclusion team. This data includes days worked for Open, the type of workspace they use (shared or not) and emissions calculations for heating and lighting the average home in the UK. We have also included emissions for powering a laptop.
In addition, we have adjusted our calculation based on whether the team members have a 100% emissions-free tariff. Our carbon footprint is significantly reduced by the fact that a third of our team
have zero-emissions energy plans. We will continue to encourage members to switch to 100% carbon-neutral plans where possible.
The CO 2 e calculations outlined in this Carbon reduction plan represent Open Inclusion’s first formal assessment of our baseline footprint. We are committed to updating our carbon reduction plan on an annual basis to help us monitor and share the progress we are making towards our goals.
As part of our sustainability commitment, we have established and shared a set of key carbon reduction principles:
Examples of the projects we are undertaking include:
This carbon reduction plan has been completed in accordance with PPN 06/21 and associated guidance and reporting standards 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 standard (footnote 1) and use the appropriate Government emission conversion factors for greenhouse gas company reporting (footnote 2).
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) Standard (footnote 3).
This Carbon Reduction Plan has been reviewed and signed off by the board of directors (or equivalent management body).
Robert Hemphill, Director
Date: 18th October 2022