Businesses put action on climate change high on agenda
THE UN’s COP26 climate change summit in Glasgow began on Sunday, with thousands of people in attendance.
The event sees world leaders, including Prime Minister Boris Johnson and US President Joe Biden, discussing how they plan to address the climate crisis.
There will also be businesses, NGOs, activists, lobbyists and protestors descending on the Scottish city during the summit, which is running until November 12.
The idea of COP26 is to bring parties together to accelerate action towards the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
“Securing a brighter future for our children and future generations requires countries to take urgent action at home and abroad to turn the tide on climate change,” said Mr Johnson before the event.
“It is with ambition, courage and collaboration ... that we can seize this moment together, so we can recover cleaner, rebuild greener and restore our planet.”
Ahead of COP26, we spoke to businesses from across the West of England about the action they are taking to cut carbon emissions – and help the planet.
Womble Bond Dickinson
Law firm Womble Bond Dickinson (WBD), which has offices in Bristol and Plymouth, won the Sustainable Business of the Year award at the 2021 Bristol Law Society Awards.
The company was recognised for its continuous improvement to its environmental performance and for finding sustainable ways to enhance its environmental management.
Earlier this month, the firm announced it is committed to achieving net zero emissions by 2030.
WBD already procures renewable energy in five of its seven UK offices, with nearly 50% of the energy used across the UK coming from renewable sources. It also recently reported a 39% decrease in emissions compared to the previous year.
WBD has also been recognised by EcoVadis, the world’s largest provider of business sustainability ratings, and The Planet Mark, a sustainability certification.
The company is also a founding member of the Legal Sustainability Alliance, an inclusive movement of law firms working collaboratively to take positive action on climate change.
Fiona O’Kane, partner and head of WBD’s Bristol office, said: “Whether at work or at home, we all want to adopt more environmentally sustainable behaviours and here at WBD we aim to be at the forefront of the progress made.”
Grundon Waste Management
A waste management company is converting two of its fleet of collection vehicles in Bristol from diesel to electric in a £600,000 investment.
The company will make the move within the next few months after trials to gauge the vehicles’ range found they were capable of operating a full day on one charge.
The commitment is part of the family-owned firm’s annual £5m investment programme to improve its roadgoing vehicles and efforts to reduce its carbon emissions.
The e-One refuse collection vehicle was able to cover more than 150km during one of its trial days with Grundon, which the company’s director Bradley Smith said had “exceeded our expectations”.
Mr Smith said: “Having proved that the vehicle is more than capable of operating a full day on just one charge, we have every confidence that, as we retrofit this clean technology onto two of our own vehicles, local residents and customers will see the increased benefits of our zero emission and zero noise collections.”
The e-One vehicle is a joint initiative between truck dealer Refuse Vehicles Solutions and EMOSS, a Dutch manufacturer that specialises in parts for heavy electric vehicles.
Yeo Valley
Organic family farm Yeo Valley is investing in a new five-year carbon soil programme.
The Somerset-based dairy brand has for the past year been measuring its farm to spoon greenhouse gas emissions – from raising and milking cows to distributing pots of yogurt and bottles of milk to the fridge door.
It’s now in the final technical stages of its carbon footprint assessment of its farms and dairy operations with the Research Institute of Sweden, with the aim of being certified by the Carbon Trust next month.
Yeo Valley Organic believes carbon sequestration in soils – the process in which CO2 is removed from the atmosphere and stored in the soil carbon pool – through regenerative organic farming, offers “enormous potential” to reduce atmospheric carbon levels.
The brand has already started working with expert partners and farmer-led social enterprise the Farm Carbon Toolkit (FCT) to begin the soil measurements of 20 of its supplying organic dairy farms.
Working with the FCT, the project aims to help farmers manage their soil in a more sustainable way.
Stride Treglown
The South West firm is one of the first architectural practices in the UK to be certified as carbon neutral as well as a registered B Corp.
The company employs 350 staff and has been implementing measures to reduce its carbon footprint for a number of years.
The firm achieved its carbonneutral status through a culmination of changes made to working practices and offices.
Significant reductions in energy consumption – including refurbishment of offices with the incorporation of renewables, changing to low-energy lighting and lower-energy office equipment – have been implemented, and it has transferred most of its utilities to green tariffs.
The data has been independently verified by The Future Economy Network and the firm has signed the United Nations’ Climate Neutral Now Pledge which, is an ongoing commitment to measure, reduce, contribute to, and report on future progress.
In the run-up to COP26, Stride Treglown has been running a series of events across the country under the banner ‘Climate Action Relay’ and has launched an art installation (with collaborators) in Pulteney Weir in Bath.
Sinking House is a message of warning, and hope, to communities across the world, according to Stride Treglown, to address the issues, reach for lifelines and act now against the intensifying threat of climate change.
When in Rome
The Gloucestershire-based sustainable wine brand has partnered with CarbonCloud to quantify their product’s carbon footprint and bring more transparency to their climate impact. This initiative will allow When in Rome to analyse the climate impact of products, starting with its bag-in-box wines.
The analysis scopes a Life Cycle Assessment of the wine, analysing the greenhouse gas emissions at every stage of the production (cradle-to-shelf), from agriculture to distribution, right up until the point the product is placed on the shelf.
The first wine to be assessed, the Sauvignon Bianco, yielded a climate footprint of 0.69kg CO2e/ kg, the business said.
When comparing this with the same wine packaged in a singleuse glass bottle, a score of 1.18 kg CO2e/kg was produced, meaning a reduction of 41% in carbon production compared to the less eco-friendly alternative.
Rob Malin, chief executive of When in Rome, said: “This is a great start in our commitment to radical transparency on the climate impact of our business activities – but it is only the beginning. Going forward, we will work with our producers as well as CarbonCloud to minimise the climate footprint of all of our products.”