The Importance of Shared Responsibility on the Path to Net Zero

At Techbuyer we take our commitment to sustainability seriously! Environmental best practice is at the heart of our business and what we strive for in our work, our services and our operations.  

Because of this, we have pledged to become a carbon neutral business by 2050 with an interim target of reducing our footprint by 42% by 2030. This pledge is across Scope 1, 2 and 3, making it an ambitious target, but one that has the support of our entire team! 

Our entire global team and combined departments have been essential in our journey so far (creating a pledge and beginning our baseline year) and will continue to be vital for our carbon reduction and eventual Net Zero accomplishment. 

Beginning Our Journey to Net Zero 

What is Net Zero? 

Net Zero is a plan adopted by companies all over the world, particularly those that are looking to improve their environmental impact as effectively as possible. Techbuyer’s Head of Sustainability and Chartered Environmentalist, Astrid Wynne explains: 

“Net Zero means a commitment to balancing your amount of carbon emissions with your carbon captures by a given date.  

It means absolute reduction targets in the near term rather than offsetting the carbon emissions with projects or investments elsewhere.  

Ideally you want to get your Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions down to about 10% of your baseline year and then use technologies to capture that amount of carbon in the atmosphere.” 

Find out more about exactly what Net Zero is in our article here.

Why We Chose Plan A for Our Net Zero Pledge 

When creating a Net Zero pledge, there are a variety of options and organisations that businesses can turn to for guidance. For our Net Zero journey, we chose to align with Plan A. As Astrid shares: 

“Plan A have an excellent reputation in the market and could accommodate reporting for SMEs. Carrying out a full Scope 3 analysis was daunting, and it was great to have an established consultancy on board to help us.” 

Choosing Our Pledge: Why We Chose the Plan We Did  

Plan A offered a choice of four different pledge options; some of these plans covered Scope 1 and 2, and others covered all three with varying reductions available.  

We chose a plan that requires us to achieve Net Zero across Scope 1, 2 and 3 equally. Whilst this is an ambitious target, and one that exceeds the legal requirements of reporting for our business, we believe in making the biggest impact that we can and we are confident in achieving our pledge! Our Group

Sustainability and Research Director, Rich Kenny, shared his thoughts on this choice:  

“We think it’s crucial to demonstrate commitment and not just try and paint a nice picture.  

By looking at our total impact across all scopes we can make a Net Zero pledge that isn’t about telling a good story but enacting meaningful change.  
It’s much more challenging but it’s also much more robust. For us this is about running a business the way its supposed to be done and considering our impact on the planet in all decision making.” 

Our Progress So Far 

Currently we are reporting on our baseline year, collecting the numbers and figures needed to find our starting position for reduction. However, climate action doesn’t wait! We have begun to make changes to our business operations to begin reducing our carbon footprint. Head of Facilities, Alan Fisher, shares more information on the work that his team has undertaken so far: 

“I recognised that our energy usage was a major contributor to our net zero journey. Switching to a 100% renewable tariff was a relatively easy step (this will save us over 270 tonnes of CO2e yearly or the equivalent of two and a half blue whales!), but ultimately reducing our energy use and increasing efficiency is the next logical action. 

We installed power monitoring equipment on critical circuits in our main facility and used the lessons learned to inform action across all our sites. A large piece of our success so far has been the nomination of Energy Champions in each global location to promote, analyse and adapt the changes we identified in ways appropriate to the locale. 

Some quick wins included scheduling forklift chargers to come on when grid carbon intensity is at its lowest (generally 2-4 am) and implementing electric vans to undertake all the UK inter-site transfers. Lighting in our stock aisles has been a surprising power draw, and with the lighting spec already some of the most efficient on the market, we are planning presence sensors in the stock aisles to reduce this by a forecast two-thirds." 

Training Our Team 

Net Zero and Sustainability training have been vital for sharing knowledge within our business and ensuring that each team has the information that they need to optimise their department.  

We offer IEMA accredited environmental training to each member of our team, led by Head of Sustainability, Astrid Wynne. Astrid has shared more on the impact of this training:  

“Training ensures everyone is aware of what we have promised to do and the methodologies we can use to get the required result. It means our staff understand what is meant by a carbon footprint, how this is calculated and what carbon accounting means. 

Using the IEMA model and covering other sustainability issues alongside carbon, gets everyone thinking about how we limit other environmental damage as well. Carbon is not the only thing we need to worry about – we have to factor in impacts on waste, natural resource and biodiversity when we are coming up with solutions.” 

Our Plan to Reach Net Zero 

So how are we actually planning to reach Net Zero?  

We’ve identified areas where we can make drastic changes over the next few months to accelerate our progress and start our journey strong!  

We are aiming to remove the gas boiler form our building and replace with an electrical unit (again fuelled by green energy supply).  

We also feel that it is important to reduce our energy usage, despite the green energy supply, as Astrid explains:  

“Energy efficiency is important because even renewable power requires infrastructure to generate it. Some of the materials that this requires are in reduced supply and also environmentally damaging to extract. 

We also realise that national Net Zero plans are going to put more pressure on our electricity grid as transport and heating transitions to electrical power. It makes sense to conserve energy resources.” 

Courier Consolidation 

One of the biggest areas of our Scope 3 footprint is the couriers we use and so this is an area that we are currently exploring options for as much reduction as possible.  

Consolidating courier deliveries and pickups is a strategy that could have a meaningful impact on our footprint and one that our Goods Out team are looking into for another large reduction.  

Sustainability Efforts Across the Teams 

Each department, each team and each individual are integral for our sustainable development; they are what drives the actions we take and the developments of environmental best practice across the business, rather than in a specific area.  

Paul Thorogood, our E-waste Manager in the UK, highlights the drive and shared responsibility of environmental practice in his team:  

“Inspired by what we learnt from our IEMA courses, we looked at what immediate impactful changes we could make, in the e-waste department. First, we looked at our material storage and preparation process for downstream transportation. We quickly adopted new packaging practices which allowed us to transport twice as much in one load, this results in less haulage trips moving our waste materials.  
Not wanting to stop there we have recently embraced a pallet refurbishment policy in e-waste, Wherever possible, we safely repair and extend the life cycle of any broken pallet this really shows the commitment the team have towards product life extension.. even pallets!” 

Net Zero by 2050 

Whilst we are just at the start of our Net Zero journey, we’re confident and excited to see the results of our efforts!  

As a supplier of sustainable IT solutions for every technology decision, we are committed to reducing our own impact, as well as that of our customers.  

Our team can help you work to increase your IT efficiency, reduce your carbon footprint and energy usage, and extend the lifespan of your technology for a more sustainable future for your organisation.  

Ready to Explore Sustainable IT Solutions? Find out more here!