Engaging staff on the net zero journey

How did you get involved in supporting Kreston Reeves' journey to Net Zero?

I’ve been passionate about reducing waste and usage within my own family for a number of years, and when I noticed we had a small ‘Green Team’ at Kreston Reeves (KR) through our internal social channels I realised there were many other likeminded people at the firm!

The channel was used to share hints and tips on reducing waste and living more sustainably, and as a group we embarked on a journey to apply this to KR and see how we could improve our own footprint.

Why is it important to engage the entire business with Net Zero?

The commitment to Net Zero is reducing emissions using science based targets by 90% over a certain number of years (usually by 2050 latest), and offsetting the remaining element. This is such a big task that cannot be achieved by a small group of people alone, which is why the learning and education on this topic needs to be shared far and wide!

Generally people are really interested on how they may be able to play a part on the journey to Net Zero, especially as the topic has been brought to the forefront of the media over the past 2 years. So getting awareness has not been an issue, but full on adoption is much harder to achieve!

What have been the top successful ways you’ve engaged staff around Net Zero?

1. Set up an internal social channel. This could just be a Whatsapp group or a Slack channel. We use a Microsoft product – ‘Yammer’. No hierarchy, just sharing great ideas.

2. Communicate often on what has worked well for people, and present progress against goals. We also summarise our progress in our annual Impact Report for external review so that we know we are being held accountable.

3. Link it with your vision! It’s much more rewarding as a business owner and a member of the team if you also have a ‘purpose beyond the paycheck’.

What challenges have you come up against, and how have you dealt with them?

One of the challenges we had was when we had assessed our carbon footprint, and was looking to offset this by purchasing carbon credits (as a short term action towards our goal of reducing our overall footprint). How would we know that the cost would actually be applied to carbon credits and how could we trust the supplier?

We went through a robust vetting process with a couple of suppliers, and after many conversations we are proud to partner with Ecologi! 

Ecologi arrange for trees to be planted for individuals and businesses using world renowned tree planting experts Eden Reforestation Projects, and source Gold Standard certified carbon credits. They are a B Corp certified company, which means they have been independently verified by B Lab to meet the highest standards of social and environmental performance, transparency and accountability.

Another challenge was the initial stages of convincing people that spending money in this area would benefit us in the long run. As accountants, we are used to advising clients on how to save money, and we are primarily financial metric driven. So, it was natural that we would have some resistance in this area!

To be honest, this challenge didn’t last for too long, and we are all very driven to reducing our carbon emissions over time. Once it was clear that our teams were very passionate about the environment and the part we had to play in that, the increased engagement was more than enough for us to make the investment.

What’s next in your Net Zero journey?

We aim to keep all of our stakeholders appraised of what we are up to – in order to hold us accountable, but also to help inspire others to join us on the journey! Our most recent update can be seen here.

Our KR Green Team and Initiatives group will continue to offer ideas as to how we can further reduce our burden on the environment. This is being delivered by little steps, often, which has such a large cumulative effect on our overall business.

We will continue to appraise our emissions each year and have these independently verified, and hopefully one day we will reach Net Zero! Until then, being carbon neutral in 2020/21 is an achievement we are all proud of at Kreston Reeves. 

Jake Standing is a Partner at Kreston Reeves. Find out more about Kreston Reeves, and their journey to Net Zero, on their website.

If you want to contribute to the Chamber blog, contact us on hannah@brightonchamber.co.uk