Cambridge Healthcare Research is extremely proud to announce we are carbon neutral for the years 2019-2020!

Being a responsible business towards the community and the environment is part of Cambridge Healthcare Research’s DNA, and in April 2021 we created a sustainability working group (SWG) to ensure that we could make changes that would impact the world for the better.

Early on in our journey, we partnered with ClimatePartner, a leading environmental consultancy with expertise in supporting businesses to determine their carbon emission, reduction strategies, and offsetting, as well as enforcing a holistic climate action strategy across organisations.

The first task on our list was to collect historical data across the business, to calculate our carbon emissions between 2019 – 2020, using ClimatePartner’s easy-to-navigate online footprint calculation tool. With the support of our highly motivated Enabling Functions teams (Ops, Accounts, People Team), we have undergone a massive data collection exercise on facilities management (electricity and gas), headcounts, procurement, and business travel. Our team of consultants took part in a company-wide survey to log their commute to work, throughout a specified time period, as well as the number of days of teleworking per week.

After 2 frenzied months of collecting and analysing our data, we learnt that between 2019 and 2020 CHR has emitted a total of 506 tonnes of CO2, comprised of ~370 tonnes in 2019, and only ~90 tonnes in 2020 during the COVID lockdown. In a typical pre-pandemic year, the most significant sources of emissions are business flights (81%), employee commuting (8.2%) and teleworking (6.5%).

Fig. 1: CHR CARBON FOOTPRINT CULPRITS (SAMPLE YEAR 2019)

Our next challenge was addressing the business’ carbon emissions through investment in offsetting projects around the world. Following the roll-out of another company-wide survey, our team voted their favourites from a list of inspiring carbon offsetting projects available for investment through Climate Partner.

To neutralise our carbon emissions for 2019-2020, we have split our resources across global offsetting projects in wind energy (49%), hydropower (20%), clean drinking water (10%), forest protection (10%), afforestation (6%) and clean oceans (6%). This makes CHR carbon neutral for 2019-2020!

Fig 2: CHR INVESTING IN GLOBAL CARBON OFFSET PROJECTS

In addition to offsetting, we have ensured that both our facilities (London & Cambridge) are now operating using 100% renewable energy, our revised travel policy raises awareness and reinforces travel booking to be more environmentally conscious and we continue to support water-saving initiatives and reduction of plastic bottles through Fill it Forward Initiative that has been running since June 2021, with >1000 bottles being reused.

The next important step in our decarbonisation journey towards net zero include but are not limited to greener transport, virtual meetings, investment in carbon removal projects, incentives for greener energy at home, greener commuting, and helping the wider team through training and workshops improve their own footprint. SWG aims to drive CHR’s strategy towards carbon neutrality and net zero emissions in the future, and we are currently in the process of extrapolating our carbon emission calculations to obtain our historical footprint since 2013, as well as estimating our emissions for 2021 for carbon offsetting.

Stay tuned to find out more about our environmental achievements or click here to explore our past initiatives!