How we are looking at our organisational climate footprint

Our latest blog is by Project Officer Rebecca Smith. In this post, Rebecca talks about how we are looking to reduce the impact our work has on the climate.

The reporting of climate emissions is key in understanding our climate impact and, as a public body, we are required to report on climate change yearly to the Sustainable Scotland Network. Regional Transport Partnerships make up 4% of the total public bodies in Scotland.

There are three types of emissions reported on:  

• Scope 1: Direct emissions e.g. heating of buildings   

• Scope 2: Indirect emissions e.g. UK grid electricity consumption  

• Scope 3: Other indirect emissions e.g. staff commuting  

As part of this work, we have mapped out our climate priorities for the next year. We have been looking at ways to reduce our internal carbon emissions and are focusing on the following areas.  

Staff travel to work  

We are currently administering the People and Place Grant funding programme which supports active travel behaviour change projects. Within our organisation, we are promoting sustainable journeys to work. This includes promoting the current facilities (cycle parking, changing facilities) available on site to enable staff and visitors who travel to Victoria Quay. We have enabled access to a cycle to work scheme offering affordable and discounted purchase of cycles and equipment. Our working hours allow us to work flexibly to allow quicker and easier commuting outside of rush hour.   

Business travel   

Likewise, we are looking at our travel through the day to get to meetings and events. We are keen to be at events in-person, but we are balancing this by encouraging remote meetings where appropriate.   

We have created a choice process where remote meetings are not suitable to determine the best approach. This includes following the sustainable hierarchy when booking staff business travel, with car and flights only being chosen when costs and time make other options impractical. We have also created some scenarios to support this process, for example:  

Scenario:

I am travelling to London, flying is much cheaper than rail, how should I travel?

Considerations:

• How much will train/buses costs in between the flight and where you’re going?  
• Is there budget to cover this journey?  
• Are there any ways to reduce your train ticket e.g. railcards, booking direct, flexible with times? 

Next steps: 

• Discuss with manager  
• Measure carbon impact (LNER)  
• Plan journey and ask for cost approval if higher than typical pricing  

When we are hosting events, we encourage sustainable travel by offering incentives, routes to venues and not encouraging parking options.  

Monitoring our progress  

As well as reporting, we discuss our carbon impact at team meetings to increase awareness. We plan to host an annual team event to:  

• Discuss performance against targets  

• Consider improvements for the following year  

• Refresh training on policies, especially our Business Continuity Plan  

The Climate Change Assessment Tool (CCAT) helps public sector organisations comply with the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009. We are planning on using the CCAT to support better self-assessment of our impact and identify areas of improvement. This will support us in better reporting and being proactive in changing policies to support climate change mitigation and adaptation.  

We are a small team, with less than 15 employees, but we are keen to keep reducing our emissions over time and develop policies that support longer-term resilience to climate change.