Business Carbon reduction plan

Climate change is an existential threat to our planet, the human race and our way of life. It is also creating wide injustices across the world. We want to be part of the solution, rather than one of the causes of the problem. The UK government has committed to businesses becoming net zero by 2050, in line with the global Paris Agreement to limit climate change to less than 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels – the limit which scientists say is required to prevent catastrophic, uncontrollable climate change.

Businesses can have an enormous influence on their various stakeholders – suppliers, customers, competitors, and employees. We urge other businesses to make plans to reduce and eliminate their carbon emissions, because together, we can all make a big impact. Small and medium sized businesses make up most of the UK business stock (and our customers), and no one is too small to have an influence.

 Climate change demands urgent and universal action. In 2021, Everflow was the first retailer to make all our customers’ water and wastewater supplies carbon offset. We also signed The Climate Pledge, which commits us to being net zero carbon by 2040 across Scopes 1, 2 and 3 of the GHG Protocol - ten years ahead of The Paris Agreement (2050).

As part of this, we will:

• Measure and report greenhouse gas emissions at least annually
• Implement decarbonisation strategies through real business change and innovations, including efficiency improvements, renewable energy, materials reductions, and other carbon emission elimination strategies (See how below.)
• Neutralise any of our remaining emissions with additional, quantifiable, real, permanent, and socially beneficial offsets.

Our ambition is to achieve net zero for our own operations before 2030. Water and wastewater wholesalers also plan to reach net zero for their operational emissions before 2030.

2024 update

For 2024, we decided to offset all of our emissions including our customers' utilities. We measured our emissions until October 2024 and have estimated our (and our customers') emissions for the remainder of the year.

During 2025, we will be only offsetting our direct emissions - so our customers' utility usage will not be offset anymore. This is to encourage all businesses to decarbonise, and because we understand that everyone is on a net zero journey of their own.

The Delta 'Blue' Carbon Removal project - Pakistan

The ‘blue’ carbon removal project in Pakistan will remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by restoring mangrove forests on 226,000 hectares of degraded tidal wetlands in Sindh Province to: 

2023 update

During 2023, we decided to buy carbon credits to offset our customers’ utility supplies at the end of our financial year instead of in advance.

This means we will buy carbon credits after our annual carbon footprint has been calculated, instead of estimating how many to buy based on how much we expect to grow. Our new process will ensure that we always purchase the correct amount of carbon credits, ensuring that emissions arising from our customers’ utility supplies are always compensated for, and that we can keep our charges low. We commit to calculating our emissions footprint, buying an equivalent amount of quality offsets, and publishing their retirement certificates, before April each following year.

For an informal discussion on how we are reducing carbon emissions for our customers and any more information on our business carbon reduction plan for 2023, please contact makemegreener@everflowutilities.com

You can view our 2023 emissions footprint report here.