Science based targets initiative - looking back over the process
Our Science Based Targets and Net Zero Carbon 2023
Contributors
Total of 2 people
All of us at Max Fordham are deeply committed to having a positive environmental impact and as a practice we have signed up to the rigorous Science Based Targets Initiative. This means creating emissions reduction targets in line with the latest climate science to achieve the objectives of the Paris Agreement seeking to limit global warming to well under 2⁰C. This requires that we reduce our Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 46% by 2030 and seek to reduce our Scope 3 emissions.
Background
Scope 1, 2 & 3 emissions
Scope 1 covers emissions from sources that an organisation owns or controls directly – for example if an office building uses fossil fuels for heat. Scope 2 are emissions that a company causes indirectly and come from where the energy it purchases and uses is produced, e.g. the emissions caused when generating the electricity that we use in our buildings. Scope 3 encompasses emissions that are not produced by the organisation itself and are not the result of activities from assets owned or controlled by them, but by those that it’s indirectly responsible for up and down its value chain.
UKGBC Net Zero Carbon Framework
In addition to the Science Based Targets Initiative, we have also aligned with the UK Green Building Council’s (UKGBC) Net Zero Carbon Framework. The industry is anticipating the new UK Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard which will replace the UKGBC framework and is due to be published late this year. The UKGBC are no longer verifying assets during this period, but the framework is still relevant and provides a pathway to ensure we are aligning with the expectations of the new Standard. The requirements of the UKGBC framework can be split into the following;
- Reduce operational energy use
- Increase renewable energy supply
- Offset any remaining carbon (expected to be optional in the UK Net Zero Carbon Building Standard)
- Public disclosure
To demonstrate the first of these, the UKGBC require energy use intensities (EUIs) to be met. EUIs area measure of the energy use per unit of floor area, expressed in kWh/m2/year and are published for different scenarios depending on whether stakeholders are tenants or building owners/landlords. These values are also defined for future assessment periods, these lower EUIs require occupiers to reduce their energy use over time, as illustrated in the table below.
Image
Text
This differs from the Science Based Targets philosophy, where reductions in the total carbon emissions is the main measure of success. The use of EUIs differs in that it is a measure of the average density of energy use across a floor area and not the total energy use, which in theory would be less critical of a growing business who maintain their EUI.
The criteria of renewable energy supply for existing buildings requires the phasing out of fossil fuels. The third UKGBC requirement expects building users to commit funds towards mitigating their carbon emissions. Finally, the last requirement addresses the need for public disclosure, which is why we are sharing this update.
How are we doing?
The below pie chart shows our overall share of emissions for 2023. Scope 1 and 2 are responsible for 44% overall, with the bulk of the rest being down to employee commuting and business travel. For both Science Based Targets and UKGBC Net Zero, we will be focusing on where the Scope 1 and 2 emissions come from and how we can reduce these.
Image
Science Based Targets
Our 2023 data shows that our emissions are on track in terms of our 2030 reductions goal for Scope 1 and 2, with our overall emissions being below the goal set previously for 2023, as can be seen in the graph below. For 2023, we targeted a reduction of 17% from baseline. The achieved reduction was 23%, which also surpasses our target for 2024 of a 21% reduction.
Image
UKGBC Net Zero
When deciding on the most suitable EUI target for each of our offices, most of our leases align with the tenant scenario. The tenant target EUI is 70 kWh/m2/year, inclusive of Bristol, Edinburgh, and Manchester.
Our London office does not share any common areas apart from a non-serviced access stairwell, a whole building EUI target is the most appropriate here. The Cambridge office is serviced by electric panel heaters and a MVHR unit, with some shared kitchen amenities in the core areas, which does not fit the profile of either a tenant or whole building assessment. We have communicated this with the UKGBC and agreed a 105 kWh/m2/year target EUI as a result.
Illustrated in the chart below is the performance for each of our offices. Our London office is underperforming against its EUI target, but our other offices are performing well and using less energy than their target EUIs. The Cambridge office is demonstrating strong performance with an EUI comparative to our Bristol, Edinburgh, and Manchester offices despite being conditioned by non-landlord systems.
We have calculated our organisation’s target and achieved EUIs by weighing the contribution of each of our offices by their floor area. This has resulted in a target EUI of 104.5 kWh/m2/year. Our offices achieved an EUI of 99.4 kWh/m2/year, which shows we are performing ahead of the UKGBC’s performance requirements by 5%.
Image
Text
Looking ahead to our 2025 target, we can see our offices outside of London are on track to achieve their performance demands. Our London office however remains a focus for us to invest in, we hope to achieve progress here by implementing retrofit measures and restoring our PV supplies. Cambridge’s 2025 target is not illustrated as a new bespoke value is needed.
For 2025, our organisational achieved and target EUIs are 71 kWh/m2/year and 106 kWh/m2/year respectively. We need to reduce our overall EUI by 33%, and provided we reduce our London offices EUI to our target EUI, this will be achieved. This corresponds to a 41% reduction in our London Office’s EUI.
Where do the emissions come from?
We have seen a reduction in Scope 1 and 2 emissions in most of our five offices against our 2022 data. Our new Bristol office, for example, has achieved a reduction of around 60% in tCO2e.
The below graph shows the emissions reductions for Scope 1 and 2 for each office individually. This shows that the most significant contributor is the London office. This is our biggest office and also hosts our servers so is to be expected. The Edinburgh and Cambridge offices have both experienced a slight increase in emissions compared to 2022, which may be due to growth in the number of occupants in the office.
Image
Image
Text
Energy consumption is largely dependent on the number of office users. So where should we be focusing our reduction efforts? When we analyse on a per person basis, we can see that the London office is the most intensive per person at around 0.25 tCO2e per person and the Bristol office the least with around 0.09 tCO2e per person.
The analysis has also shown that not all our emissions have decreased from 2022. Our Scope 3 emissions for waste, commuting and business travel have increased by 14.8% in the past year. This is mainly due to an increase in business travel compared to in 2022. There is still an overall reduction when compared to the baseline year, and we are still on track to meet our 2030 target.
Image
What have we done?
To achieve the reductions this year, there have been two main strategies. The Bristol office has moved to a more efficient building - the Beacon Tower, a retrofit office tower with an EPC B rating. The building using heat pumps and has undergone fabric improvement works to achieve this.
We also reduced our floor area in the London office in March 2023 and now more intensively using the two remaining floors of the Rotunda. The third floor was responsible for around 32% of energy usage in 2022, and giving up the floor has resulted in a 21% decrease in energy use for 2023.
What will we do?
We are anticipating the new UK Net Zero Carbon Building Standard and its stance on the use of carbon offsets. In the interim, we plan to offset our carbon emissions in line with the UKGBC guidance. We have ringfenced some funds from our internal budget, which we plan to use on projects that will decarbonise our operational emissions.
The London office will receive some works this year as part of a new Green Lease agreement with our landlord, with part of this including the decarbonisation of the heating system. We have been working closely on the strategy for this with the building management team. We also hope to reconnect to the PVs on the roof of the London office, as they no longer provide energy to our office since the end of our lease on the third floor.
The Manchester office is looking to relocate to a larger office, with a reduced dependency on fossil fuels. Additionally, we are looking to decarbonise the heating system in our Edinburgh office, through switching from a gas boiler to heat pumps. Edinburgh and London are our two biggest offices, so decarbonising these would achieve a significant reduction in our Scope 1 and 2 emissions.
In terms of our Scope 3 emissions, growth in our business and our personnel makes reduction challenging but we are going to implement further behaviour change initiatives to see what is possible. We prioritise taking on projects where our offices are based to reduce inter-city business travel, and we continue to encourage staff to use low-carbon transport when commuting.
