We started the work to evaluate and understand our own environmental carbon footprint back in 2020. This was a key strand of our environmental strategy ensuring that we understood the carbon footprint that we as a business was directly responsible for and how this can be accounted for and reduced. Throughout this timeframe we’ve worked with a number of partners, demonstrating our commitment to constantly improving our understanding of our environmental impact, using the latest tools available, and transparently applying the most up-to-date best practices.
Our 2023 carbon footprint analysis was conducted in partnership with Greenly, succeeding Supercritical as our footprinting partner. Utilising more comprehensive and accurate calculation models, aligned with evolving international standards, has resulted in an increase in our reported footprint. This apparent increase isn't primarily attributable to increased emissions, but rather the application of these more robust methodologies.
These standards have been updated to incorporate more granular data, resulting in a more detailed breakdown of emissions sources. This includes updated emission factors, expanded subcategories, and a more robust spend-based methodology for services and marketing, including previously underestimated areas like digital services and consulting.
What is a carbon footprint? The amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere as a result of the activities of a particular individual, organisation, or community.
What are scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions?
Scope 1 covers direct emissions from owned or controlled sources.
Scope 2 covers indirect emissions from the generation of purchased electricity, steam, heating and cooling consumed by the reporting company.
Scope 3 includes all other indirect emissions that occur in a company's value chain. (https://www.carbontrust.com/resources/briefing-what-are-scope-3-emissions)
What is a Carbon Dioxide Equivalent?
A carbon dioxide equivalent or CO2 equivalent, abbreviated as CO2-eq is a metric measure used to compare the emissions from various greenhouse gases on the basis of their global-warming potential (GWP), by converting amounts of other gases to the equivalent amount of carbon dioxide with the same global warming potential.
The road to improvement
Whilst reduction is always the preferred option, this isn’t always possible. For PKB, we need to continue to support our users with secure access to the platform and as such, PKB has committed to removing our entire footprint year on year where reduction has not been possible.
The lack of clarity around avoidance offsets’ longevity and validity (whereby payments are made to stop others emitting carbon) encouraged us to instead focus on permanent carbon removal.
Removals
- Immediate removal:
- 525 tonnes CO2e via Biochar - where charcoal is produced from waste biomass and stored in the soil. This is a durable form of carbon removal that will outlive our carbon emissions. Not only does the spreading of charcoal on fields provide permanent carbon storage, it has the added advantage of enhancing soil fertility, helping with foot and land challenges
- 27 tonnes CO2e via Afforestation - high-quality, vetted afforestation programmes that guarantee a performance of at least 60 years
- Investments in future permanent carbon removal technologies, supporting these solutions’ scaling and maturing, increasing the carbon that they can capture, as well as driving down the price. This investment was spread across two key areas:
- 24 tonnes CO2e via Enhanced weathering - which accelerates the natural process of weathering to permanently remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere
- 3 tonnes CO2e via Bio-oil - turning carbon dioxide back into oil and pumping it back underground, to permanently remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere
Traditional offsets vs carbon removal offsets
What is Carbon sequestration? Carbon sequestration is the process of capturing, securing and storing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
At PKB we are committed to accounting for our full footprint year on year, ensuring that we continue to assess our footprint, reduce where possible and remove any remaining carbon to ensure that we remain a net-zero provider to NHS organisations.
