Bord na Móna
Bord na Móna adopted its Brown to Green strategy in 2018, at a time when peat harvesting was central to the company’s profitability and viability. By 2020, the company had ceased peat harvesting and was transitioning to becoming a Climate Solutions company. 2020 was also a seminal year for corporate ESG policy and law making, as the EU Green Deal was formally launched and the legislative process for the new Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) was commenced.
Bord na Móna is now focused on closely aligning its business and sustainability strategies, and testament to this, over 90% of the company’s capital expenditure is eligible to be classified as ‘activities that make a substantial contribution to climate change adaptation’, according to the company’s latest update.
This investment is already having a tangible impact, with 95% of the electricity the company produces to come from renewables by 2024. Bord na Móna is on track to become the leading supplier of green electricity in Ireland, and this year saw the achievement of a significant milestone for the company, as over 1 Terawatt Hour (1 million Megawatt hours) of electricity was generated from renewable energy sources.
According to Dr John MacNamara, Corporate Sustainability Lead at Bord na Móna: “It is easy to underestimate the paradigm shift that the EU Green Deal is striving towards — the delivery of the first climate neutral continent by 2050, with near term targets of a 55% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.
“EU policy-makers recognise that private finance and business will be important in delivering this transition, and have legislated accordingly, including the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation, the Taxonomy Regulation and the CSRD. This is where many companies will see an impact as ESG reporting and related disclosures become mandatory for the first time.”
Bord na Móna has put in place robust processes in anticipation of this new reporting regime, and the company has recently achieved certification under ISO14064-3 for quantifying its Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions. The company’s GHG emissions have dropped by circa 82% in the last six years and further reductions are projected for this year. In addition, Bord na Móna is also participating in the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) and is aligning with the Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD).
“Sustainability and ESG initiatives are more than simply another set of data points that need to be published” Dr
MacNamara adds. “What we are seeing in Bord na Móna is the coalescence of the traditional business and sustainability strategies into a single corporate strategy – leading to our vision of becoming Ireland’s leading Climate Solutions company.”
In the case of Bord na Móna, the company is now focused on renewable energy production, development of low carbon enterprises, recycling and waste management, peatland rehabilitation, and supporting the development of sustainable goods and services through its business accelerator programme Accelerate Green. In particular, the company is planning a €2.7 billion investment in its Renewable Energy and Recycling businesses. Bord na Móna Renewables is seeing significant expansion in renewable energy infrastructure to increase production capacity from wind, solar, biomass, biogas and green hydrogen.
Complementing the use of Bord na Móna’s peatlands for renewable energy projects, there is another advantage from a land use and carbon perspective that has the potential to reduce Ireland’s carbon footprint, as the Peatland Climate Action Scheme (PCAS) supports rehabilitating and restoring Ireland’s bogs to help meet climate and biodiversity goals. In fact, circa 95% of the lands managed by Bord na Móna are being dedicated to rehabilitation and restoration, which is offering new local amenities for communities and opening new eco-tourism opportunities.
The Bord na Móna Recycling business is helping its 140,000 customers across the country to transition away from the linear ‘take-make-use-dispose’ model of waste management by investing in necessary recycling infrastructure and operational processes to deliver a more circular economic approach to waste.
Bord na Móna’s progressive Accelerate Green programme which launched in 2021 is the first equity-free Irish accelerator initiative dedicated to scaling companies, which are developing products and services based on green innovation. Following very positive feedback from alumni companies, the majority of which have both expanded their business and employee numbers, Bord na Móna has this year committed a further €5 million to support and grow the Accelerate Green programme.
When taken as a whole, our Renewable Energy developments, Recycling business and Peatlands Rehabilitation projects combined with our Accelerate Green Programme demonstrate that today, Bord na Móna, really is ‘More than Móna’.
At Cpl, we take our responsibility to create a better world seriously. We were delighted to have published our first annual Sustainability Strategy and Report in Q4 2022 which encapsulates both our achievements to date and our plans to become a more sustainable organisation.
Cpl’s CEO Lorna Conn believes that “sustainability issues will and should play an increasingly important role in the long-term success of all businesses”. Cpl are committed to operating a business that has a positive impact on all stakeholders and we are determined that our sustainability activities and targets will fulfil that ambition.
As part of our first Sustainability Strategy we have updated our company vision to be the world’s best at transforming our clients and candidates through sustainable transformational talent solutions and experiences.
To Cpl, sustainability means being an exemplar for good business practices, by creating a positive impact on society, the environment, our people, and our economy. In becoming a more sustainable business, we are not only doing the right thing for the planet, we also significantly add to our brand value, meet (and get ahead of) customer demands, protect business, create new opportunities, attract more talent, reduce business risk, and increase business efficiency.
PEOPLE FIRST
At Cpl we put people first and strive to provide them with all the tools necessary to succeed, not only in work but in life. Our people are the conduit thousands of job seekers use to secure employment and security for themselves and their families. This continuum of people working together to improve the livelihood of the thousands we touch every day is the basis of our commitment to sustainability.
We are very aware of the impact we have on the people that we work with, and, through our sustainability practices, we are also aware of our impact on the environments in which we operate. We want our impact to be a hugely positive one. Wherever Cpl touches someone’s life, interacts with other companies or leaves its mark, we want it to be synonymous with our values of accountability, customer focus, communication, respect, and empowerment.
Throughout the past 18 months we have made significant investment to both understand and improve our sustainability performance. We have established the baseline for our carbon footprint and developed a literacy around our environmental actions. The results of our double materiality analysis helped to guide our approach to our Sustainability Strategy and Report and have given us a stronger understanding of the risks and opportunities presented
to our business. Through completing this materiality and understanding our footprint, we have begun to take the necessary steps to create a great and sustainable workplace for all our stakeholders.
MATERIALITY ASSESSMENT
Along with providing us the grounding for our Sustainability Strategy, our materiality assessment identified 5 primary objectives that have the greatest impact on our business and where we believe we can make the most difference. To ensure these objectives have real impact and reach the level of excellence expected within Cpl, we have aligned them with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. By aligning them to such a universal framework, we can also ensure cross collaboration with our parent company, OUTSOURCING Inc. (OSI), and with our stakeholders across different industries and in different countries.
We look forward to progressing this work into the future to meet our commitment of NetZero by 2045. This bold but necessary act of leadership taken from the team in Cpl will not only help to create a greater workplace for all in Cpl and our extended community, but it will significantly reduce our environmental impact and ultimately help to create a better world in which we can all thrive.