George Leslie Ltd (GL hereafter) is a leading Scottish civil engineering and construction company that maintains some of Scotland’s critical infrastructure in many remote and challenging environments. 

Beginnings

Our work started in 2020 when COVID disrupted our lives. As restrictions eased over the summer, we delivered a design-out-waste workshop and circularity assessments through the Zero Waste Scotland Circular Construction Programme, in partnership with Resource Futures. 

We cemented, excuse the pun, our relationship with GL’s team by supporting them with their Carbon Management Plan for Scottish Water in 2022.  

As we moved into 2023, Phase 3 of ESOS (Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme) was approaching. This was GL’s first experience with ESOS compliance, and they were unaware of the significant change in the Phase 3 requirements.  

ESOS

We quickly reassured them, explained how we could build a set of templates for the GL team to collate the necessary energy data and streamline energy audits for complex construction sites. Above all, we were confident in our experience of proactively engaging with the Environmental Agency ESOS helpdesk to obtain guidance on applying the regulations to the construction sector. 

As we embarked on the new year, we drew on our experience of delivering 10 ESOS Projects since 2015 alone, and nearly 1000 energy assessments overall, to deliver the three key requirements for this project: 

1. Calculate Total Energy Consumption and Significant Energy Use
2. Conduct an Energy Assessment for GL head office, transport activities and site activities.
3. Prepare the ESOS report for GL’s board

We drew on our expertise in working with the construction sector to estimate energy savings for a sample of construction projects – a very different process to calculations for a standard manufacturing process or office building. Working with our partner Chris Asensio from Carbon Change, we developed a site energy assessment and conducted coaching sessions with four GL team members. Working together, we combined our expertise to identify significant energy savings, such as using Hushpods, variable-speed drives for pumps, improved insulation for welfare facilities, dehumidifiers, and the benefits of mains grid connection. The GL team then sourced the required activity data for the identified opportunities, and the BG team prepared calculations to estimate energy and cost savings, investment requirements, and associated carbon reductions. Together we reviewed the results, made changes and shared the outcomes with the Senior Leadership team to develop implementation plans. Importantly, the ESOS savings feed into the company’s next Net Zero roadmap.

Future Plans

Central to how we work is collaboration, ensuring we bring everyone involved in the journey toward a lower-carbon future along. We continue to work with the GL team through our annual retainer, which covers their organisational GHG emissions reporting, supporting the leadership team with the Carbon Management Plan, and the team with data processing. 

We have just completed the implementation of an easy-to-use carbon accounting platform from our partners and fellow B Corp: Carbon+Alt+Delete (CAD). Through our coaching and video tutorials, GL’s team is confident and equipped to lead the carbon accounting process in the coming year, with Beyond Green focusing on independently verifying the emissions and supporting them with their PAS2080 certification. We will again turn our attention to ESOS Phase 4, due by December 2027, with the added benefit that CAD will automatically calculate all the in-scope energy data required!   

ESOS Phase 4 will require companies to submit the results of their total energy consumption and energy savings by 5 December 2027, and partnering with BG, GL are already on the path!

Looking for more real business examples of our work? You can find our other case studies here.

The post George Leslie Ltd: ESOS Case Study first appeared on Beyond Green.

Pentland Science Park Ltd was established by The Moredun Foundation to improve the welfare of livestock for the Scottish farming community. The science park is home to leading scientific and research organisations, including Moredun Research Institute. Pentland Science Park Ltd (PSP hereafter) manages the park’s estate, facilities and two farms to ensure its environmental management complies with ISO14001 requirements.

Beginnings

In late 2024, our friends at On-site Generation introduced us to PSP to respond to the   Compliance Manager’s request for assistance with internal auditing of the Environmental Management System (EMS) of this large and complex estate with multiple tenants.  We quickly developed a collaborative relationship with the compliance manager,  devised a risk-based approach, and agreed on working practices so we could achieve a tight deadline by mid February 2025. 

Now

PSP required an experienced audit team that could hit the ground running, work with their systems and prioritise a complex compliance regime to ensure all the processes were completed within 10 days. Having never been to the site before, we invested effort in understanding the underlying business activities through conversations and site walks with key process owners; we then set up collaborative working methods to efficiently share information, track progress and resolve issues.

The audits included the following: 

• Waste Management, 
• Emergency Response, 
• Fuel Delivery and Storage, 
• Compliance obligations, including carbon reporting and Net Zero,
• Site maintenance, 
• Monitoring, Communication and Leadership.

Our internal audits exceeded PSP expectations as we went beyond the minimal compliance requirements for ISO 14001 to identify compliance risks and opportunities, improve efficiency and drive continual improvement. As with all our audit and assurance projects, we robustly challenge the business-as-usual and use open conversations to ensure the project outcomes create value beyond compliance while aligning with our clients’ values. For Moredun, this means focusing on collaboration, maximising impact, and protecting communities and the environment now and in the future. 

With our work completed on time and on budget, PSP was ready for its annual external audit by a UKAS-accredited body.

Future

Now that they have successfully achieved an excellent result from the external audit, Pentland Science Park and Beyond Green will debrief their work together. Our project debrief process is an important part of our client service. It helps explore the support that Beyond Green can provide PSP with internal auditing and the Moredun Research Institute with Carbon Reporting and achieving their Net Zero commitment.

This is was Gillian Galbraith, Compliance Manager at PSP, had to say about our work together:

“PSP was extremely pleased with Beyond Green’s work at short notice. Their expertise and efficiency ensured a seamless internal audit of our Environmental Management System, despite the complexity of our estate and tight deadlines.

They quickly developed a collaborative approach, engaged key process owners, and implemented effective methods to identify compliance risks and improvements beyond standard ISO 14001 requirements. Their audits covered critical areas, including waste management, emergency response, and carbon reporting, all with a focus on continual improvement.

Thanks to their thorough and timely efforts, PSP was fully prepared for its external audit, achieving excellent results. We look forward to continuing our collaboration to enhance environmental compliance, carbon reporting, and our Net Zero commitments.”

Looking for more real business examples of our work? You can find our other case studies here.

The post Pentland Science Park Case Study: EMS internal audit first appeared on Beyond Green.

Centre Circle Event Management Ltd (CCEM hereafter) is a company that provides security staff for some of the UK’s most iconic venues and events, such as football stadiums and music venues. 

Beginnings

It started with the introduction from our community: Richard Whitney from Edinburgh based On-site Generation. Richard, like Beyond Green’s Director, Paul Adderley, is a registered ESOS Lead Assessor; CCEM had initially reached out to him, but he did not have capacity at the time and redirected them to us. With Christmas 2024 fast approaching, Beyond Green promptly responded to the call for help from CCEM to support them with their ESOS Phase 3 compliance. This was CCEM’s first experience of ESOS compliance, and they were unaware of the requirements going into the project.  

Now

We quickly reassured them, explained how to engage with the Environmental Agency, and set up templates for the CCEM team to collate the necessary energy data before we all headed off for a well-deserved festive break. 

As we embarked on the new year, the Beyond Green team drew on their experience of delivering six ESOS Projects in 2024 alone, and nearly 1000 energy assessments overall, to deliver the three key requirements for this project: 

1. Calculate Total Energy Consumption and Significant Energy Use
2. Conduct an Energy Saving Opportunity Assessment for CCEM’s head office, and transport activities
3. Prepare the ESOS report for CCEM’s board

The BG team drew on their digital expertise to facilitate a virtual energy savings ideas session. Using an online whiteboard tool (Miro), we guided the CCEM team through a brainstorming and prioritisation process to identify viable energy and cost saving actions around using company cars and grey fleet. Our Miro process allows everyone to participate and to easily develop ideas together. Once we had some great ideas in the bag, we then worked with CCEM’s finance director to quantify the savings; examples include the fuel saved from staff staying in rented accommodation for summer events, and switching to Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEV) or Electric Vehicles (EV).

Future

Central to how we work is collaboration to ensure we bring along all those involved on the journey to a lower carbon future. We hear that the ESOS process has energised the team to be more engaged with energy management, and CCEM’s operations team is already switching to EVs and PHEVs ahead of plan. CCEM’s landlord has also been very supportive, and new smart electric heaters are now being installed. 

ESOS requires companies to submit progress to their action plans in December 2025, and CCEM are already ahead of the curve!   

The post Centre Circle Event Management Ltd Case Study: ESOS first appeared on Beyond Green.

Founded in 2006, Vegware is an Edinburgh-based food packaging company like no other. They specialise in certified compostable ”Packaging made from plants”. With their pre-sales advice and market education, followed by their after-sales support with the Close the Loop service, their passion is to maximise food packaging becoming compost. They have shelves of industry awards, were recognised with a Queen’s Award for Enterprise, and continue to drive change in the packaging industry.  

Beyond all, Vegware values trust with its customers and strives to be clear, transparent, and honest in its claims about its products and performance. This continues following its incorporation into the Novolex family of Eco Products  in 2021. 

Beginnings

Beyond Green began working with the Vegware team in 2013 to help them become certified to ISO14001 and ISO9001 for Environment and Quality Management. For a fast-growing company, documenting a process that was constantly evolving as they expanded the team, markets, and processes was challenging. Working together, being robust while pragmatic, we got there and with continued growth, they have maintained their certification since 2015.  As the team became more confident and comfortable with ISO compliance requirements, Beyond Green’s role evolved into becoming their trusted partner for their half-yearly environmental compliance audits. 

Our internal audits ensured Vegware went beyond the minimal compliance requirements in ISO 14001 to identify compliance risks and opportunities to improve efficiency and drive continual improvement. The audit process, though challenging, involves open feedback and coaching to ensure its outcomes align with Vegware’s ambition to always do better. 

Now

Operating in UK and global markets, especially across Europe, Vegware is impacted by legislators’ and regulators’ increased focus on the packaging industry and the scrutiny of Green Claims in the UK and EU.

Reflecting on this in 2024, we expanded the depth and breadth of our internal compliance audit of Vegware’s market and customer communication to evaluate compliance against the 13 aspects of the Green Claims Code (GCC). Drawing on our expertise in non-financial assurance, we seek robust evidence to corroborate claims, have an objective and critical mindset and engage in collaborative conversations with Vegware’s Head of Marketing. Why this approach? It allows us to capture the big picture perspective to spot omissions, hone in on key phrases and detailed evidence, and explore and stress test solutions. 

An example is questioning the phrase “sustainably sourced” – What does this mean to Vegware’s end users? 

Sustainably is an ambiguous and nebulous term, mixed up with a range of concepts: environmentally friendly, responsibly sourced, low-carbon, green products, the list goes on.  Through our open conversation, the Head of Marketing, with the perfect marketing mindset, responded “ Well let’s ask our customers across our community what they think!” 

Future

This case study is an example of their transparency in ensuring that they continually raise the bar in their industry to ensure the customers get what is said on the tin. Vegware has always invested time and resources in educating their market on the pitfalls and solutions for compostable packaging, and now they have upped the ante with their Webinar Series, “Transparency Talks” with one webinar taking on Green Claims, covering the Green Claims issues: greenwashing, green hushing, etc.

Here is what Vegware had to say about our work together:

Working with Beyond Green is invaluable in keeping us on the right track with our communications. They help us ensure we’re using clear, transparent language and avoid making bold claims that can’t be backed up. Their guidance gives us confidence that we’re communicating responsibly and effectively. I always enjoy our sessions as they are insightful, practical and a real asset to our work at Vegware.” – Kelly Falconer, Head of Marketing, Vegware

As for Beyond Green, we will continue to adapt our compliance approach to focus on the key risks, combat complacency by objectively questioning the information in the context Vegware operates in, and openly explore issues to ensure our support helps Vegware in its quest for transparency. 

Looking for more real business examples of our work? You can find our other case studies here.

The post Vegware Case Study: Green Claims Code (GCC) first appeared on Beyond Green.

The Royal College of Pathologists (hereafter RCPath) is a professional membership body with over 12,000 global members. They are medical professionals who not only work in laboratories, but directly in hospitals and communities and are concerned with the causes of disease.

Having previously worked with other professional associations on their sustainability journey (such as The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow), we were confident that we could use our experience to work with RCPath and help kickstart their Net Zero journey.

The Project

Among a multitude of risks posed by a changing climate, it has been predicted that rising global temperatures could lead to an increased risk of future pandemics. RCPath are aware of the severity of the climate emergency and want to play their part in a low-carbon future. RCPath approached Beyond Green seeking guidance to develop a Net Zero strategy with clear follow-on actions. 

Project Delivery

An Iterative Carbon Baseline

The project aimed to develop a Net Zero strategy that connects to RCPath’s core values of Service, Teamwork and Ambition. When any organisation begins their Net Zero journey, the first thing they need to do is to calculate their carbon baseline. Ideally, an organisation would calculate emissions for all the categories outlined in the Greenhouse Gas Protocol (GGP) that apply to them. Most organisations do not possess the resources to measure emissions for all categories from the outset but should make plans to do so over time. RCPath committed to measuring eleven out of the eighteen categories in their baseline year – which is an admirable starting point!

We worked with RCPath to identify the categories that were most relevant to them. Afterwards, we identified the data requirements that were necessary to allow us to calculate their organisational footprint. We sought to do this using spend data for complex categories such as purchased goods and services, and activity data such as kWh consumption for electricity and natural gas. Throughout the project RCPath’s baseline emissions were revised as new information was uncovered, which is not uncommon at the start of an organisation’s Net Zero journey.

Collaboration to Reduce Emissions

After calculating RCPath’s baseline emissions, the next step was to generate ideas for carbon reduction opportunities. Nobody knows the organisation better than the people keeping it running, so we wanted to make sure to hear from a range of voices throughout RCPath to help us outline their roadmap. We set up workshops with stakeholders in four key areas of their operations, within which team members could brainstorm decarbonisation ideas:

• Energy and facilities
• Exams
• Procurement

Tapping into expertise from targeted areas of the business allowed us to identify decarbonisation ideas that were not only tailored and specific, but also practical. For example, following this project RCPath plans to provide plant-based catering for its internal events. However, we realised that they could not take control of the catering provided for external clients at their office, who routinely book the space.

Accessibility

Accessibility is important to us, so we took steps to ensure that all attendees at the carbon reduction workshops were able to contribute comfortably. Firstly, we sent a briefing ahead of each meeting, outlining the structure of the workshop to the RCPath team. We also made the carbon baseline report available to all participants to allow members of the team who had not previously been involved in the project to get up to speed in advance of the meeting. In addition, we gave participants the opportunity to add ideas to our workshop Miro board asynchronously, in case they were not able to do so during the meeting.

I was particularly impressed with the collaborative nature of Beyond Green’s work and how they adapted their process to meet our needs.

Daniel Ross, Chief Executive Officer of The Royal College of Pathologists

Clear Actions

Following the carbon reduction workshops, we used our Net Zero toolkit to project the impact of the proposed actions on RCPath’s carbon emissions to 2032. For each action, we were able to outline how much carbon could be saved for each emissions category. We also mapped each measure to one of the four categories, to allow for easy digestion by key decision makers within RCPath:

Text description of graph

This graphic outlines the four categories of emissions reduction measures that we assigned to RCPath, based on a scale of ease of implementation (low to high) and Impact (Low to high).

• Long-term projects: Actions that could be implemented at a later point in RCPath’s Net Zero journey (High Impact, Low Ease of Implementation)
• Priority tasks: These were actions that may take time to implement, but could yield significant carbon savings. (High Impact, High Ease of Implementation)
• Resource drains: These Actions were disregarded as it was anticipated that they would use excessive resources, without yielding significant carbon savings (Low Impact, Low Ease of Implementation)
• Quick wins: These were actions that were relatively straightforward to implement, and are proven to reduce carbon emissions (Low Impact, High Ease of Implementation)

Improving Carbon Management Processes

Lastly, in the final project report, we recommended ways that RCPath could streamline their carbon management processes to drive efficiencies and improve the reliability of their sustainability reporting.

RCPath’s next steps are to:

1. Implement the carbon reduction measures which were identified throughout this project
2. Monitor their progress towards their interim emissions reduction target
3. Expand their carbon boundary in the coming years to include emissions categories which were not measured initially

Ultimately, their ambition is to reach Net Zero by 2040, allowing for time for contingency in the journey ahead, while being ahead of the UK 2050 target.

Client Feedback

At the end of the project, we reached out to Daniel Ross, Chief Executive Officer of The Royal College of Pathologists, who said the following:

“Developing our Net Zero roadmap is a key strategic objective for RCPath. Beyond Green guided and supported us through the process from calculating our carbon footprint to working collaboratively with our team to identify and calculate the key opportunities to build our roadmap to Net Zero. They worked with us to identify the categories of emissions which are most relevant for our business, then calculated our emissions for our baseline year, before engaging with stakeholders throughout the college to identify decarbonisation opportunities. 

I was particularly impressed with the collaborative nature of Beyond Green’s work and how they adapted their process to meet our needs. They understood the importance of gathering perspectives from various departments within the college and were skilled facilitators to enable our team to contribute. They always took a pragmatic approach to any challenges with quantification, so we did not drain our resources; and ensured we now have a Net Zero roadmap with clear actions.”

Looking for more real business examples of our work? You can find our other case studies here.

The post The Royal College of Pathologists Case Study: Net Zero Roadmap first appeared on Beyond Green.

J. Smart & Co. (Contractors) PLC (hereafter ‘J Smart’) is a leading property developer and construction company in Scotland’s Central Belt with a blended portfolio of industrial properties and office spaces. Their construction activities range from building J Smart’s property portfolio to residential properties for sale and for housing association partners.  Although J Smart is a UK-listed company, it is a family-run business with an ambitious team that realises the importance and value of transitioning to improving their Net Zero and sustainable business practices.  

Beginnings

Building on Beyond Green’s extensive experience of working with the Scottish Construction sector since 2008 through our work with Castle Group Scotland, GHI Contracts Ltd, George Leslie Ltd, and Zero Waste Scotland, the team was well positioned to support J Smart. 

The Beyond Green team was introduced to J Smart by its long-term collaborative partner – Anderson Strathern LLP – in the autumn of 2022. We have been working with Anderson Strathern, pre-pandemic, on their Net Zero strategy, and so it was natural for them to introduce us to the team at J Smart. 

From the initial meetings with Jane and Lynsey (Head of Commercial Development and Head of Human Resources respectively), the importance which J Smart and Beyond Green place on building open and long-term relationships was clear; and as 2022 came to a close, we set the foundations for our work in 2023.   

Now

The focus of our work together for 2023 was to develop J Smart’s first Sustainability Strategy and to prepare J Smart for listing requirements for Taskforce for Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD). No small feat for a small team. We often think of a listed company, a PLC, as a large multinational, such as Galliford Try or Balfour Beaty, and overlook that some listed companies can be, in effect, an SME with limited capacity and resources for transformational projects. So where did we start?

It was clear from Paul’s conversation with Jane and Lynsey that we needed to bring people together to understand what sustainability is, introduce possible frameworks to think about it, and show everyone that they can make a positive impact for a better world.   Before we got bogged down in the world of TCFD!   

Sustainability Workshop

2023 kicks off with a session at J Smart’s Links Place office complex on a beautiful sunny morning, just off Leith Links in Edinburgh. After an initial introduction of core concepts of sustainability, circular economy and Net Zero, we took a deep dive into the UN Sustainable Development Goals – we find this a useful framework to understand the breadth and depth of sustainability.  Working in small groups, the 15 members of J Smart’s team, including the Joint Managing Directors and Chairman, explored the SDGs that are important to the business now and what will become important by 2030. The image below shows the final priority goals and supporting goals selected by the group. 

Alternative description: The Priority Goals are 3 – Good Health and Well-being, 8 – Decent Work and Economic Growth, and 12 – Responsible Consumption and Production. The Supporting Goals are 4 – Quality Education, 5 – Gender Equality, 9 – Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure, and 17 – Partnerships for the Goals.

For these goals, the team then considered the actions they are already taking to contribute to the overall objective of each goal, and then the actions they could take in the next few years to strengthen their contribution. This workshop formed the basis of J Smart’s Sustainability Strategy which was then developed further by working through the requirements of TCFD.  

TCFD Work Packages 

The requirements for TCFD – Taskforce for Climate-related Financial Disclosures are founded on four pillars: Governance, Strategy, Risk Management and Metrics and Targets.  Across these pillars are 11 recommendations that help an organisation focus on the financial impacts of climate change on their current and future business activities.  To understand the implications of climate change upon a business required a thorough assessment of J Smart’s key stakeholders (People, Tenants/Home buyers, Partners), key partners in their supply chain, and key assets and materials which could be impacted by physical and transitional risks of climate change, as well as any opportunities it may present.   

To break down this momentous task, Beyond Green devised 11 work packages within an overall project briefing document to help the 9-member project team at J Smart methodically assess the underlying impacts of climate change on business. The outcome of this will eventually inform both the sustainability strategy and the TCFD requirements. One of the overarching work packages was to develop J Smart’s first comprehensive GHG Emissions Statement.  With many interrelated aspects to the work, it was necessary to develop a collaborative way of working both internally and with the Beyond Green team. 

Collaborative Working – Miro Mindmap Merry-go-rounds 

A project of this complexity with contributions from several team members at J Smart and Beyond Green requires effective technologies to help us all work together in person and virtually. The J Smart team were introduced to a number of new collaborative tools, such as online whiteboards – Miro – and Microsoft Teams. With expertise from Beyond Green’s Associate Director, Lisa, Beyond Green designed a guided whiteboard for each work package that allowed Paul (BG Founder and Director) to facilitate discussions, visualise discussion points and map out the big picture plans, in particular for the preparation of the TCFD requirements.   

Although Miro boards were an effective tool when J Smart was guided by Beyond Green, it became challenging without expert facilitation. Quickly adapting to the requirements, the Miro export functionality enabled us to reconfigure the detail into an excel spreadsheet; and with added guidance the J Smart team was comfortable to progress independently. J Smart recognise the value of Miro, and wish to invest in more training to use the tool effectively for construction project planning. The use of Teams enabled our collective work to be shared and worked on simultaneously, which was particularly valuable for the data gathering, analysis and carbon accounting. 

Digital Data Discipline 

Carbon Accounting requires a lot of data! And often requires new data sources and data sets, or gathering data in a manner that supports dynamic analysis and interrogation. For example, energy data across the J Smart group was previously collected through several separate spreadsheets that required a lot of manual manipulation to calculate kWh and carbon emissions for a range of energy sources. We designed and built an energy database which streamlined data gathering, analysis and carbon calculations. A database with lots of controls, such as defined dropdown lists and lookup tables, using existing datasets, meaning that data discipline was embedded in the process. 

With 2023 being J Smart’s first year of preparing a comprehensive carbon footprint for Scope 1, 2 and 3, and with the tight reporting timelines following the company’s accounting year end, we decided to prepare a 6-month carbon statement to test the methodology, identify data sources and understand the data cleansing needed. With a lot of data gathering work by the J Smart procurement team for materials and sub-contractors, by the property team for leased assets and by the HR team for travel, we could prepare for the year end. 

Bringing it all together

After many months of hard work, the sustainability strategy document was taking shape and the richness and insights of the information gathered helped J Smart understand and analyse climate related risks and opportunities for the first-time. From this analysis, the board could identify seven strategic objectives to focus on over the next few years; objectives that also aim to reduce the emissions.     

The extensive carbon inventory prepared and quantified over 6 months created a clear audit trail for Beyond Green and J Smart to prepare a transparent, comprehensive and reliable Greenhouse Gas Emissions statement for the TCFD report, along with clear explanations about the specific methodologies and their limitations. Although the GHG Corporate Accounting Protocol provides clear guidance and overall methodologies, the challenges arise at the coalface where detailed methodologies and assumptions will constantly develop to overcome the limitations discovered in the first few years.  

Nevertheless, the achievement of J Smart and Beyond Green’s collaboration and hard work put us in a great position to build on in the future.     

Future

Over the last year, the J Smart Sustainability Committee, led by the Chairman and heavily supported by the Head of Commercial Development and Head of Human Resources, have engaged the wider team to lead the key work packages to prepare their fully comprehensive report on TCFD requirements.  The company’s dedication, hard work and ambition are impressive and with our guidance, they work pragmatically to overcome the challenges. As a team, we have grown a lot, developed new knowledge and skills and embraced new ways of working collaboratively.  All this has strengthened the foundations and added key building blocks for us to progress in 2024.     

J Smart with the support of Beyond Green are now planning the 2024 TCFD (which will be incorporated under the UK Sustainability Disclosure Standards (SDS) going forward) and GHG Emissions reporting progress; identifying how to streamline data collection and analysis; looking at opportunities to utilise software and technologies to drive forward digital transformation; and evaluating how we can further develop team collaboration, and the skills required. In addition, 2024 will see J Smart develop its first Net Zero Roadmap to evidence how it will achieve Science Based Targets for 2030.

Within 12 months, the team has significantly shifted its focus towards sustainability, which has overwhelming support from the wider organisation, and engaged with its key stakeholders in developing J Smart’s sustainability strategy; David, Jane and Lynsey are now ready to lead the team on the next stage of the journey. 

Testimonial

It was obvious from our initial meeting with Paul Adderley at Beyond Green that they would be fantastic partners for our Sustainability journey. We were filled with confidence due to their knowledge, extensive experience and proven track record.  Full of optimism and enthusiasm, Paul and his team accepted the challenges presented to them and provided invaluable, pragmatic and sensible advice at every step of the process. From an almost standing start with tight timescales, and with great participation from our Home Team, we have produced a sustainability strategy which will form the basis of our commitment to reducing our emissions and enhancing our sustainable working practices.  Paul also provided very helpful technical guidance for our TCFD reporting commitments, working very closely with our team to advise and guide. We look forward to building a long term partnership with Paul and his team at Beyond Green.”

David Smart, Chairman and Joint Managing Director, J. Smart & Co. (Contractors) PLC

Looking for more real business examples of our work? You can find our other case studies here.

The post J. Smart & Co. (Contractors) PLC Case Study first appeared on Beyond Green.

Aberdeen Performing Arts is a charitable trust founded in 2004. Their vision is to create a vibrant, cultural hub at the heart of city life – inspiring, exploring and engaging through live performance and creative projects.

Aberdeen Performing Arts (APA) manages three iconic Aberdeen city-centre venues, His Majesty’s Theatre, The Music Hall and the Lemon Tree. In addition to the spaces within those venues, they run over five festivals a year, and a production company, with over 1,000,000 visits to our venues annually. Their small and ambitious team are working towards achieving Green Tourism Awards for all their venues, and they are a proud member of the Green Arts Initiative run by Creative Carbon Scotland. In November 2019, they were one of the first arts organisations to win the VIBES Award for Environmental Management and have been recently shortlisted under the Climate Action category within the North of Scotland Thistle Awards. 

Beginnings 

The Beyond Green team became involved with APA back in 2016 through a Zero Waste Scotland project with one of our long-term clients – Castle Group Scotland. Castle Group Scotland was a key contractor on the refurbishment of the Music Hall, and Beyond Green worked collaboratively with them to explore reuse opportunities for the hall’s plaque flooring, lifts and timber supports.  

After this engagement, we remained in touch, and in early 2019 we began supporting APA with their regulatory compliance with the Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme (ESOS).  In December 2019, with a successful submission sent in, life for APA, like for all of us, was soon about to change significantly with the onset of the pandemic. Like many organisations, it was all hands on deck to navigate these uncharted waters.    

Now 

It is a testament to the resilience and creativity of the APA team to have come through the pandemic with all its challenges to the creative and events sector. Our founder Paul was delighted in October 2022 to receive an email from the Head of Finance and Sustainability, Matt Godfrey, wishing to continue our partnership with their important strategic objective to develop a Net Zero roadmap.   

It was clear from Paul and Matt’s conversation that both organisations had built on their strong shared values around  Optimism, Curiosity and Teamwork, all crucial to working towards Net Zero.  They also had a personal shared connection, as two accountants working in sustainability; Paul commented to Matt during their first conversation how uplifted he felt seeing the title of Matt’s role and that he was leading APA’s Net Zero project.  

Through an interactive session using collaborative tools like Miro, the ambitious team included 11 carbon emission categories in their baseline, including many challenging ones such as Audience travel, purchases of goods and services, employee commuting and homeworking!  Once we all knew what was going to be in our Carbon Pie, it was time to gather data and crunch some numbers. We found the emissions relating to production of programmes by third-party promoters particularly difficult, given data availability, and investigated how to apportion the emissions from a tour going to many UK venues. We decided to exclude them this time, and revisit them in the future when there is more data available. 

So in December 2022, we started out on our 5 steps to Net Zero Roadmap project, with an initial briefing about Net Zero over Microsoft Teams which serves to ensure that everyone is on the same page given the raft of confusing terminology and greenwashing out there. APA wanted to ensure they expanded their current carbon reporting to be in line with best practices, so we also covered what is included in a carbon footprint for Net Zero to create a shared knowledge base for the project team. 

With the Net Zero carbon baseline (31 March 2020) and analysis completed, it was on to the challenge of identifying ambitious actions to reduce the baseline by 42% by 2030, an interim target in line with Science Based Targets (SBTs). But the plan also needed to be pragmatic, practical and financially viable for a small organisation with huge demands on its resources. APA wished to gather as much input from across the organisation as possible, as Net Zero is not a stand-alone project delivered by a few, but requires everyone to be involved to be successful.  To support this, we adapted our Carbon Reduction Ideas session in Miro to enable asynchronous contributions from the APA team, along with a short video introducing the session. In effect, we created a hybrid method to deliver the workshop, allowing in-person and offline contributions to low-carbon ideas.   

With over 50 carbon reduction ideas covering energy, travel, and procurement, we had the interesting task of identifying and prioritising the top 15 to model into a 10-year road map. Using the Miro voting function, a priority matrix and a timeline, we could easily visualise the decision process so everyone could understand how we arrived at the final list of ideas.       

The final stage was to quantify the expected reduction in carbon emissions from the priority ideas until  2030. Again, we needed to be pragmatic and use project resources (budget and people’s time) wisely, so with a balance of good data and assumptions we identified a significant reduction emissions from the priority carbon reduction actions for the current carbon boundary.    

It is usual for the first Net Zero roadmap to identify a shortfall against the SBT for 2030. For APA this is more challenging, as options to reduce energy use are limited due to old stone buildings. Although APA is investigating opportunities for saving more energy, they are not going to be relocating their 1800’s Music Hall to a new BREEAM office! Another challenge is that a high proportion (75%) of emissions, like for many SMEs, are out of their control, in particular audience travel which is highly dependent on individual choice and the availability of public transport.  

Matt Godfrey, Head of Finance and Sustainability said “We are delighted to be working with Paul and the team at Beyond Green on our next stage towards our net zero journey. The pandemic posed a significant challenge for Aberdeen Performing Arts and the arts sector as a whole and we were fortunate to come through this with the support of our audience and partners. Despite the challenges it posed it did offer us an opportunity to reset and revisit our Sustainability plans and strategies.

Sustainability is at the core of everything we do within Aberdeen Performing Arts, and to ensure that any plans were understood and embedded within our organisation we wanted to undertake a baseline assessment and planning process that was truly collaborative. The facilitation, support and expertise offered by Beyond Green throughout this project encapsulated this collaborative ethos, ensuring that we were able to have meaningful discussion and idea generation that could be harnessed into a working plan and roadmap.

At all stages of this process from initial scoping, through to the data collection and ESOS work Paul has guided and supported us, ensuring that we can take a pragmatic view and output that reflects our capabilities. We hope to develop this strong working relationship through the next delivery stages of our journey.” 

Future 

In the last 9 months, Aberdeen Performing Arts’s Green Team, led by Matt as Head of Finance and Sustainability, have engaged the wider team to generate ideas and prepared their initial Net Zero roadmap to guide them over the next 5 years or so; no small feat for a small team. Their dedication and ambition are impressive and they work pragmatically to overcome the challenges.   

Aberdeen Performing Arts with the support of Beyond Green are now conducting the ESOS 2023 work to calculate more detailed cost and carbon savings from energy use, which will feed into the next iteration of the Net Zero roadmap in late 2023. In addition, we are working together to build a carbon reporting tool to help them understand progress against their Net Zero roadmap. This tool will help Matt provide different levels of detail to APA’s board, wider stakeholders and the Green team so all parties can make informed decisions.   

Furthermore, Aberdeen Performing Arts will continue to work on improving data collection, often a challenging area for emissions that are outwith their direct control (Scope 3 emissions).  They are already making headway by looking at streamlining data gathering for audience travel through their booking system and formalising the data captured from visiting companies in terms of freight.  

And all the great progress made this year has already gained recognition, as Aberdeen Performing Arts is shortlisted in the Climate Action category at the Aberdeen City & Shire Thistle Awards 2023, the first year of this category within the awards. 

Looking for more case studies? You can find our other case studies here.

The post Aberdeen Performing Arts Case Study first appeared on Beyond Green.

The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (ICAS) is a global professional body for chartered accountants. ICAS has a rich heritage, having been formed in 1854 as the world’s first professional body for accountants. Their position within the profession makes them a key influencer and driver of change, which is reflected in their ambition to tackle climate change in a meaningful way. 

The project

ICAS has long understood the importance of sustainability, having reported their annual carbon emissions through the Carbon Disclosure Project since 2011. However, ICAS recognised showing climate leadership now requires developing a Net Zero Strategy to understand and tackle carbon emissions at all levels of the organisation. 

Project Delivery

We began the project with a Net Zero briefing to ensure all members of ICAS’ Net Zero project team were up to speed with key concepts. We then worked together to define a new carbon baseline, helping them to identify and quantify sources of Scope 3 carbon emissions which had not previously been reported on, such as Purchased Goods and Services.

During this process, we worked with sub-teams across the organisation to help them better understand current data availability and plan for future improvements to increase efficiency and accuracy of annual carbon reporting via Ecometrica. ICAS understands that improving data quality helps to drive efficiencies and better sustainability action and that to make improvements requires collaboration across multiple teams. 

Once a more complete carbon baseline was established, an interactive group workshop was run to identify and prioritise carbon reduction actions. The carbon impact of these actions was quantified and modelled into a near-term Net Zero Roadmap to 2030 in line with Science Based Targets (SBTs). Scenario analysis was included within the Net Zero Roadmap to help reflect the uncertainty related to office emissions, as ICAS begins to plan for future working requirements which align with Net Zero and with changes to working habits resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Outcomes

A carbon baseline for the year to December 31 2021 was calculated. As a result of the Net Zero Strategy project, ICAS understands the importance of engaging with Tier 1 suppliers as a priority to better quantify and reduce carbon emissions in their supply chain. ICAS are now looking to the future to implement carbon reduction actions, improve data collection and continue expanding their carbon boundary as they progress towards their goal of reaching Net Zero. 

Beyond Green has been fantastic in guiding us through our journey towards Net Zero, from the early Briefing and Scoping Sessions, through our Data Collection Sessions to establish our Carbon Inventory, to quantifying our Carbon Baseline. They provided the right mixture of guidance and technical expertise, where those were required and steered us through the process of developing our Net Zero Roadmap. Paul Adderley and Neil Hutson have been such a great help and support throughout this project and we will be seeking their continuing support as we move forward on our journey towards Net Zero.“

Craig Anderson, ICAS Facilities Manager, November 2022

Looking for more case studies? You can find our other Net Zero case studies here.

The post ICAS Net Zero Strategy Case Study first appeared on Beyond Green.

Festivals Edinburgh is a strategic umbrella organisation bringing together eleven iconic Edinburgh member festivals in collaborative and strategic projects. 

The Project

This was Phase 2 of our ongoing work together; Phase 1 was a carbon baseline verification project. You can read our case study on Phase 1 here.

Phase 2 of the project covered an impartial and external review of the carbon targets set by 8 participating festivals.

Project Delivery

For this phase of the project the aim was to review the carbon targets set by the participating festivals. A realistic outcome agreed with all festivals was for each festival to have 3 verified carbon reduction targets. To achieve this, we reviewed their existing targets, held collaborative conversations with each festival about them and supported the festivals in creating new credible targets where needed. Then we proceeded to validate the targets. 

We approached this process in three steps:

1. Validate the design of the target
2. Validate the underlying data and information
3. Validate the carbon reduction calculations

This allowed us to address any big picture improvement areas for the targets before moving onto the more data-heavy, detailed validation steps where we could use our technical expertise to suggest potential improvements and long-term opportunities for development of the methodology to ensure that target setting and monitoring progress is practical, reliable and realistic.

Impact

From our work, we could validate the festivals’ targets and provide recommendations for improving on the target and on the underlying data processing to maximise the long-term benefits of their carbon reduction plans. Our collaborative approach, supported by our technical expertise, allowed us to suggest best practice improvements for the methodology of data analysis, taking into account key business concerns like business continuity and change management. We produced both an overall project report for Festivals Edinburgh, and provided a summary of the verified targets for each festival, including our supporting calculations that substantiated and quantified targets from reliable evidence. By sharing this information, we hope that each festival can use it as an internal reference, so the outcomes of our work can strengthen their knowledge base for the future.

Outcomes

The value of carbon target validation is in the creation or finetuning of targets that can form the basis of long-term Net Zero plans. A reliable, precise, and achievable target allows for clear actions to be defined and scheduled in advance, which ensures that the festivals can deliver on their carbon reduction goals. It is also a way of future-proofing sustainability plans – Net Zero and the related carbon accounting are constantly evolving fields of knowledge; the more visible and robust the thought process and methodology used to develop your initial targets, the easier it will be to adapt or expand on them as new best practice emerges.

We are now going to support the festivals to take forward the recommendations in our report by facilitating a workshop to help them design a more consistent approach and methodology that works for them all. 

Here is what Gary Stewart, General Manager for Festivals Edinburgh, said about our work with them to date:

We were pleased with Beyond Green’s continued high-level of service during the second phase of this 12-month project which focused on validating at least 3 carbon reduction targets for eight individual festivals. Throughout this phase, their adaptable and collaborative approach to working with a variety of festivals with different needs ensured that the process and recommendations were valuable to ourselves and the individual festivals.  They were always on hand to offer pragmatic guidance while ensuring the outcomes were robust and credible, and they often went the extra mile to help us achieve our goals. We look forward to future opportunities to work together where their services can support our requirements.”

Gary Stewart, General Manager, Festivals Edinburgh, November 2022

The post Festivals Edinburgh Carbon Target Validation Case Study first appeared on Beyond Green.

In our Autumn Newsletter below, you can read more about changes to our team, our carbon verification work with Festivals Edinburgh, and our investment in our accessibility skills.

Team Changes

Donald Rose

After 6 years with Beyond Green, Donald is leaving us for new adventures, which will no doubt include fishing in some of Scotland’s finest lochs. During his time with us he delivered numerous projects, identifying £4.5m in cost savings and 10,000tCO2e in carbon emissions. He had a particular interest in breweries and distilleries helping them comply with ESOS and energy savings, and helping Scottish Construction businesses with circular economy projects through Zero Waste Scotland programmes. 

Beyond his project delivery work, Donald’s passion for photography has provided us with photos to use on our website and in our annual reports, as well as providing the inspiration for the creation of the Beyond Green logo based on a photo of the autumn leaves outside our former office. 

We wish Donald all the best for the future!

Sally Paynter

Sally has joined us as our new Digital Business Support Assistant. She will be supporting us with our digital transformation efforts, as well as providing administration and project support and contributing to our business development work. 

“I’m delighted to be joining the team and contributing to an organisation that I share values with and that makes a difference in the business community.”

We’re excited to welcome her to our team!

Investing in our accessibility skills

Our Operations and Communications Lead Lisa is now a Certified Professional in Accessibility Core Competencies (CPACC), a certification administered by the International Association of Accessibility Professionals (IAAP). We’re excited to continue building on our accessibility efforts, and investing in our team skills in that area. As CPACC, Lisa will be providing valuable insights to add value to our project delivery.

Festivals Edinburgh Case Study

Earlier this year, we completed our carbon verification project with Festivals Edinburgh, which built on their pre-existing work on making their environmental impact visible and measurable. You can only manage what you can measure, so they brought us in to provide an independent sense check of their numbers and identify practical recommendations on how to improve their carbon calculations.

Our current piece of work with Festivals Edinburgh is to support them to set reliable and quantifiable carbon reduction targets against their pre-pandemic baseline. From the work so far, it is uplifting to hear the ambition, passion and seriousness the festival leaders are bringing to climate action.

Read more about work with Festivals Edinburgh on our website.

Upcoming webinar

Our Founder and Director Paul Adderley will be speaking on an upcoming webinar by ICAEW on business sustainability amid rising energy costs and the ongoing climate crisis. Join on the 5th October to learn more about available funding, practical next steps and real-life case studies.

Resources

– Did you know about the take back scheme for beauty packaging? It will allow you to recycle packaging that would otherwise go to landfill.

– Do you want to build your accessibility awareness? There is a free online short course by RNIB about sight loss and its impact.

– Paul reflected on active travel and remote work; read more on how the pandemic had changed our commuting practices here. 

The post Sustainability Newsletter Autumn 2022 first appeared on Beyond Green.