Spec Finish

Sustainability It is vital that all organisations in the fit-out sector understand what sustainability means to our sector and how they can reduce their carbon emissions to meet the needs and expectations of their clients and the Government targets. THE JOURNEYTO REDUCING ORGANISATIONAL CARBON EMISSIONS 10 www.thefis.org T HE Paris agreement has set out that if we want to keep temperatures below 1.5C, we need to take significant measures to reduce carbon emissions. In response, the UK Government has set a target to be net zero by 2050, which will require significant changes in the way the industry and society operates. While those targets were set a few years ago, it has taken a while for the industry to act. But there is now little doubt that sustainability has gone up on everyone’s agenda which is heavily driven by individuals and organisations keen to ensure they contribute to a reduction in carbon emissions. So far, the UK Government has been slow to respond, however on 30 March, it published its “green day” package of measures related to energy and climate to support the Government’s new net zero strategy 1 . Whether it is because a client asks for it or because the organisation believe it is the right thing to do, organisations need to get up to speed with the agenda. In 2021, FIS set up a sustainability leadership group. The aim of the group is to define what sustainability means for the sector and to provide the necessary support for members to upskill, understand and respond to this agenda. One of the first things that the group did was to identify topics of interest and importance. The discussions are led by FIS members and FIS facilitate the discussions and work with interested parties to collate information and provide support. In particular, FIS worked with the Supply Chain Sustainability School, BW, ISG, Lumybel, Bryson and Zentia to create a free to access learning pathway on sustainability, more details can be found on the FIS website 2 . Part of the activities which the FIS sustainability leadership group also put together was a paper to explain what net zero at an organisational level means. In order to reduce its carbon emissions, an organisation first needs to understand where they come from and to identify opportunities for reduction with a plan over a number of years. The Green House Gas (GHG) protocol 3 (see Figure 1) is a useful approach to structure the scope of the measurement. It sets out three groups of emissions: • Scope one refers to direct emissions: relates to activities owned and controlled by an organisation. These might include, for example emission from the combustion of the organisation’s boiler or furnace. • Scope two refers to the energy indirect emissions: relates to emissions released into the atmosphere and related to the consumption of purchased energy, e.g. grid electricity. • Scope three refers to all other indirect emissions: relates to the emissions which are a consequence of the organisation’s actions, other than those covered under Flavie Lowres, FIS Sustainability Champion Figure 1. Illustrates scope one, two and three emissions