Climate action
Photography by William McCue, courtesy of Unsplash
Avison Young U.K.: our progress towards net zero carbon
In 2023 we delivered initiatives which are improving our impact in these areas, helping to reduce our carbon emissions, and contributing to the transition to a low-carbon economy. These include:
- Data quality: 89% of our offices now have Automatic Meter Reading (AMR) for electricity, increasing from 70% in the prior year.
- Training: We continue to provide in-house sustainability education to all staff within key business units and service lines including inductions, upskilling series, and seminars.
- Developed an occupancy and fit-out standard to guide how we select, fit out or upgrade our workplaces: Fitting out our space can contribute a significant proportion of our carbon footprint. Therefore, having an occupancy and fit-out standard compatible with our net zero strategy is essential.
- Certifications: 51.6% of our portfolio (by floor area) at the base build and or fit-out level hold a certification from an environmental assessment methodology such as BREEAM and SKA.
- Increased take up in our EV salary sacrifice scheme to help employees lease electric vehicles we launched a scheme in 2021. During 2023, EV take- up increased by 185% against 2022.
- Measured Scope 3 emissions in the following categories: purchased goods and services, capital goods, fuel and energy-related activities (not included in Scope 1 and 2), upstream transport and distribution, waste, business travel and employee commuting in accordance with the Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Standard from the GHG Protocol.
There are several energy and carbon trends which were observed in 2023:
- A 0.56% decrease in energy consumption in 2023 compared to 2022 due to office rationalization and the energy efficient Manchester office.
- Electricity consumption in 2023 was lower than 2022 by 4.1%.
- Gas (Heat) consumption in 2023 was lower than the 2019 baseline by 23.4%. This is a result of reduced floor space in the office portfolio combined with increased efficiency standards in office selection, fit-out, and operation.
- Hybrid working continued in 2023 and appears to have stabilized with minimal impacts on energy consumption across the portfolio.
- We continue to recognize that we are not reducing emissions through staff working from home and have yet to develop a methodology to capture and report these emissions. We will ensure future reporting aligns with evolving industry best practice in this area.
- Scope 3 is where most (95%+) of our carbon emissions exist. Specifically, from the categories of purchased goods and services, capital goods, business travel and commuting. Understanding our carbon emissions from purchased goods and services is a key focus area where we will be undertaking action to identify the data in detail and what action we can take to decarbonize.
- Emissions from employee commuting have increased compared to 2022 but remain significantly (42.3%) below the 2019 baseline year.
- Emissions from business travel have decreased by 26.4% compared to 2022 and 48.3% lower than the 2019 baseline year. This reduction is mainly a result of reduced flights taken in 2023, specifically long-haul flights.
- 51.6% of our office locations (by floor area) hold environmental certifications (BREEAM/SKA) of either the base build or fit-out.
- Non-profit organization, the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), has awarded Avison Young UK a ‘C’ for Climate Change disclosure in 2023. This assessment and our score enables us to better understand our journey to operating in line with the 1.5-degree Paris target, while offering our stakeholders insight into our decarbonization and net zero carbon journey.
Energy and carbon analysis: total emissions
- As our data collection and analysis continues to improve, actual data is located or errors are identified, we have revisited previous data to improve estimation and extrapolation calculations to provide greater confidence within the data.
- There has been a decrease in energy consumed in 2023 compared to 2022. This is a result of changes to our office portfolio through the reduction in floor area of existing office spaces, most significantly in our Manchester office that relocated at the beginning of 2023 and is much more energy efficient than the previous office.
- Both electricity and gas consumption were lower in 2023 than the 2019 baseline. This reduction is a combination of office portfolio reduction, improved energy efficiency and the increase of hybrid working since the Coronavirus pandemic during 2020/21. Despite taking action to reduce our demand for energy from our office portfolio, we have seen an increase in Scope 2 emissions. This is due to an increase in the carbon intensity of grid electricity and an increase in gas consumption. Between 2019 and 2023, we reduced our Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions by 20.6%
- This reduction was due to two factors: The carbon intensity of the electricity supply has reduced as the generators switched from coal and installed more renewable generation. Changes to our office portfolio, for example, where we have relocated our offices to a smaller floor area, more energy efficient space or fully electrified sites is driving this reduction in emissions.
- It was anticipated that energy and carbon emissions would continue to increase throughout 2023 as staff continue to return to the office, increase the amount they commute and undertake business travel, however, this is not expected to reach pre-pandemic levels and will begin to plateau as more efficient office space is taken up and efficiency initiatives are rolled out. Electricity consumption and business travel have reduced compared to 2022, with commuting and gas increasing.
2023 highlights
Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions reduced by 20.6% (compared to 2019 baseline)
Launch of Pangea, our first business resource group for environmental and social action
Measured and reported all applicable Scope 3 emissions
Roll out of Automatic Meter Reading (AMR) on 89% of electricity supply
70% of sites on a 100% renewable energy tariff
Electric vehicle salary sacrifice scheme igrew by 185% compared to 2022
Our net zero strategy
Avison Young (U.K.) has committed to achieving net zero carbon emissions (Scope 1 and 2) by 2030 or earlier (2040 globally). To that end, we’re concentrating our presence in energy-efficient buildings, including those that have been retrofitted or refurbished with a focus on sustainability. These steps are part of a broader decarbonization effort that extends across our operations, reshaping policies and practices in areas ranging from procurement to business travel.
Our progress to date
To date we have undertaken a range of initiatives to reduce our carbon emissions as well as planning future improvements:
- We are delivering action to cut our U.K. carbon footprint. Between 2019 and 2023, we reduced our Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions by 20.6%.
- We have been focusing on the accurate capture and reporting of Scope 3 emissions as we are acutely aware that this is where the majority of our emissions are located. Significant steps have been taken to capture this data, we will continue to focus on this as we continue our decarbonization journey.
- As our data collection and analysis improves, actual data is located or errors are identified, we have revisited previous data to improve estimation and extrapolation calculations to provide greater confidence within the data.
- There has been a decrease in energy consumed in 2023 compared to 2022. This is a result of changes to our office portfolio through the reduction in floor area of existing office spaces and most significantly our Manchester office that relocated at the beginning of 2023 and is much more energy efficient than the previous office.
- Both electricity and gas consumption were lower in 2023 than the 2019 baseline.
- Despite taking action to reduce our demand for energy from our office portfolio, we have seen an annual increase in scope 2 emissions. This is due to an increase in the carbon intensity of grid electricity and an increase in gas consumption. The longer-term reduction in scope 1 and 2 emissions between 2019 and 2023 was due to 2 factors. The carbon intensity of the electricity supply has reduced as the generators switched from coal and installed more renewable generation. Furthermore, changes to our office portfolio where offices have relocated to a smaller floor area footprint, more energy efficient space or fully electrified sites, have combined to drive reductions in emissions.
- It was anticipated that energy and carbon emissions would continue to increase throughout 2023 as staff continued to return to the office, increase the amount they commute and undertake business travel, though this is not expected to reach pre-pandemic levels and will begin to plateau as more efficient office space is taken up and efficiency initiatives are rolled out. Electricity consumption and business travel have reduced compared to 2022, whilst commuting and gas increased.
Our route map to net zero carbon by 2030
Data, policy and training
- Benchmark and data collection
- Data platform
- Automatic meter reading-electricity
- Training
- Identify office efficiency quick wins.
- Offset Scopes 1 and 2 (partial Scope 3)
Efficiency, governnance and reporting
- Expand metering to heat and water
- Global occupancy standard and real estate strategy
- Enhanced expense and travel policy
- Formalize Scope 3 reporting
- Offset Scopes 1 and 2 (partial Scope 3)
- Analyze and engage value chain to reduce Scope 3 emissions
Embodied carbon
- Reduce embodied carbon and integrate circularity principles
- Continue to drive down Scope 3 emissions in the value chain
- Offset Scopes 1 and 2 (partial Scope 3)
Offset
- Offset residual emissions (Scope 1, 2 and 3) into UKGBC approved carbon sequestration and social value projects