Regular Cleaning Sustainability Report 2024
01
CEO WELCOME
A Sustainable Future
Our sustainability journey began in 2021 with a clear vision. We wanted our work to protect the planet and help care for its people. Out of this, our sustainable business strategy to ‘Create Better Places’ was born. We have since made it our mission to act as market-leaders and become one of the UK’s most sustainable cleaning companies. We are now proud to share our progress so far and detail our plans to keep providing happier and healthier spaces for the future.
Our Sustainability Report is an overview of our sustainability and social value journey, highlighting key milestones and achievements since it began. Certification with Planet Mark proved a pivotal moment in this journey, pushing us to redesign aspects of our business and how we work. Now more than ever, we champion sustainability and social value in everything we do and are on a path towards becoming industry-leaders when it comes to creating a brighter future.
Social value is integral to this mission, and our service is carefully curated to include thoughtful innovations, social impact, sustainability enhancing initiatives, and an unwavering dedication to our Net Zero by 2030 target. Starting our sustainable journey was a steep learning curve, but we have since engaged our colleagues and service partners to align with our environmental and social objectives and made huge strides towards achieving our goals. With the guidance of Planet Mark, and the collective effort of our entire business, we are now making our vision to protect our planet and its people a reality.
By truly understanding our impact, we have been able to adapt our approach and enhance the sustainability of ours and our clients’ businesses for the long-term. We are leading the way for like-minded organisations in our industry, knowing that we are stronger when we work together. Our commitment to transparency and continuous improvement is what ensures that we will keep pushing the boundaries of what it means to be a sustainable, and socially responsible business, now and for the future.
02
ENVIRONMENTAL
Our Evolution
Our Net Zero jdourney beg in 2021 with two primary goals; To become the most sustainable cleaning company in the UK and to protect our planet and its people. This inspired our sustainable business strategy to ‘Create Better Places' and became our guiding ethos. Our Sustainability Manager led the charge, and we earned Planet Mark certification in 2022. This was our chance to make an impact, and so we set an ambitious Net Zero by 2030 target, marking our commitment to change. We began engaging with our colleagues and service partners to ensure an alignment on this goal and the rest is history.
Scroll across for more details of our Net Zero journey to date.
Building Momentum
2021 - 2022
Next, we partnered with Planet Mark to begin our Net Zero journey. Our Sustainability Manager had the passion to drive this forward and worked to produce timelines and measure our carbon inventory, collecting extended scope 3 data for Net Zero Year 1. This process mirrored our certification and fuelled our determination to go even further.
Major Milestones
2022 - 2023
By April 2022, we had calculated our benchmark carbon emissions for 2020-21 totalled 860 tCo2e and achieved Year 2 certification. Having gained certification twice and developed a ZeroBy30 strategy and transition roadmap within the first 15 months of our partnership were significant accomplishments. In May, our office refurbishment was complete, creating an exemplar sustainable workplace where our ambitions could thrive.
Re-stating Targets
2023 - 2024
As we grew, we had to reassess our targets. We knew this would be a challenge, but despite having substantially expanded which increased emissions, we restated our carbon emissions for 2022-2023 in May 2023. By March 2024, our data collection showed a reduction in carbon per employee for years 3 and 4, although overall carbon had increased.
Shaping our Future
2024 - 2030
Looking ahead to 2030, we continue to refine our transition plan and review our progress. We’re engaging with service partners, adopting new ways of working, and using sustainable products and innovations to reduce emissions. At our Service Support Centre, we're working towards a fully electric vehicle fleet and exploring solar panel installations. Challenges remain, but we’ll overcome them by staying open, innovative, and adaptable.
Starting a Transparent Journey
2020 - 2021
In 2021 we embarked on certification with Planet Mark, an organisation aligned to our values. We collated data from 2020-2021 to measure our scope 1, 2, and limited scope 3 carbon emissions, and achieved Year 1 certification. Inspired by Planet Mark's ZeroBy30 program, we set our sights on achieving Net Zero by 2030.
Setting Bold Targets
Managing carbon emissions effectively requires a solid grasp of the data – data which many businesses don’t start collecting until they embark on their Net Zero journey. To track our progress, we partner with Planet Mark for their certification process, allowing us to report our annual progress accurately.
When it came to taking climate action, we knew that we had to be able to walk before we could run. We began by identifying and collecting data for our scope 1, 2, and limited scope 3 emissions, while implementing the frameworks we needed to continue capturing data on an ongoing basis. This foundational step gave us valuable insights into our environmental impact, such as employee commuting levels, and helped us plan how to reduce these impacts.
We’ve now been on our Net Zero journey for four years, and our first annual report highlights our progress so far. It's essential to understand that emissions are interconnected and influenced by multiple factors; It's not a race, and progress can be complex and gradual.
Since 2021, we've seen a positive trend, with an overall decrease of 6.8 tCO2e. However, as our business grows, some outputs naturally increase. This year, we observed a slight rise in our total emission score due to our expanding operations. Despite this, our emissions per employee continued to decline, demonstrating our ongoing commitment to improvement.
We must continue to challenge ourselves to find innovative ways to achieve our Net Zero objectives. Our journey shows that while progress is possible, it requires continuous effort and adaptation. We're committed to reducing our carbon footprint and making a positive impact on the environment.
| Year | tC02e | Reduction % | tC02e/Employee | Reduction % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 YEAR 1 | 48.3 | NA | 1.1 | NA |
| 2022 YEAR 2 | 41.8 | 13.45 | 0.7 | 36% |
| 2023 YEAR 3 | 40.6 | 2.87 | 0.6 | 14.28% |
| 2024 YEAR 4 | 41.5 | +2.16% | 0.5 | 16.66% |
Measuring and Collecting Data
To achieve our sustainable goals, it’s crucial to understand how we’re currently doing. That’s why we continually review monitor, and report on the environmental and ecological impacts (scope 1-3) of our operations and services. We collect data that helps us to measure our impact and accurately report on our sustainability goals.
We use various data capture platforms, documentation, verbal and pictorial evidence to ensure we can provide evidence that can be scrutinised internally and externally.
Read more about
scopes 1,2,3
Click arrow to expand
Better Methods: Innovations
As a sustainably driven cleaning company, we are committed to seeking sustainable solutions and eco-friendly cleaning methods that minimise our carbon footprint and are kind to the environment. By carefully selecting equipment that saves energy and water, and using chemical free products, we reduce the environmental impact of our operations, cut down on waste, and enhance the sustainability of the spaces we clean and the wellbeing of those who use them.
Chemical Free
Reducing Energy
Reducing Water
Considerate Choices with a Big Impact
We aim to find sustainable solutions that work for ourselves and our clients, but we love when our efforts also create a positive impact on communities. In 2022, we started using the innovative iMop scrubbing machine after discovering its partnership with the Made Blue Foundation. Made Blue use funds raised from their products to build wells in areas around the globe without access to clean drinking water, generating donations on behalf of their customers based on the usage of their products.
The iMop is in use across many of our clients’ buildings and each one equals a donation of 18 litres of clean drinking water for each day it’s used. To date, with the introduction of initiatives such as the iMop we have donated more than 2,500,000 litres of water to some of the world’s poorest communities.
Awards and Achievements
We want our company to live and breathe sustainability, promoting environmental best practices in line with our strategy to Create Better Places. Investing in the sustainability of our business is just one of the ways that we’re working to secure a better future, and we’re proud to have won multiple awards over the last year that acknowledge our hard work in this area, and to have been nominated and shortlisted for many more.
In 2023, we won Planet Mark’s award for Best Supply Chain Engagement acknowledging our efforts to advance sustainability standards within our industry. Since launching our sustainable business strategy to Create Better Places in 2022, we have made client collaboration a priority, and were honoured to receive this award for our commitment to supply chain engagement. In the same awards we were shortlisted (2022 and 2023) in the Best Company category.
We proudly won a Green Apple Environment Award for our Office Building Refurbishment project in 2023. After carefully designing our new space to be sustainable for the long-term, it was an honour to be acknowledged for this environmental commitment as we strive to be the most sustainable cleaning company in London. Making our Service Support Centre a sustainable workspace is just one of the many ways that we have been investing in our planet's future. In addition to this, we have also been recognised as a Green World Ambassador, recognising those that help others to help the environment.
In 2023 we were shortlisted for a Living Wage Champion Award by the Living Wage Foundation. This award celebrates those that have made an outstanding contribution to the movement for fairer pay in the Recognised Service Provider category. We choose to pay a wage that reflects the true cost of living and believe that our colleagues deserve fair pay that reflects the true cost of living. As a business, we strive to be a responsible employer and were so proud to be shortlisted for this award.
Supplier Engagement
Supplier Engagement has remained a priority since we began our journey as we quickly realised that we cannot achieve our sustainable ambitions without the support and alignment of our service partners. Since joining forces with Planet Mark in 2021, we have made it our mission to embed sustainability into every aspect of our business. To this end, we took it upon ourselves to create a wider education initiative to upskill colleagues and service partners, ensuring our journeys and goals are aligned, and we work collaboratively towards a more sustainable service.
A key part of this initiative is our in house delivered IOSH training from the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health. This training is offered to colleagues, clients, and service partners, focusing on workplace safety and sustainability. The course enhances understanding of sustainable business practices and helps everyone involved to become more knowledgeable and proactive about sustainability.
Through our supplier engagement efforts, we have gained client trust and now have a robust process in place to collect and share data from our supply chain. This means that we can now provide emissions data for our clients down to a specific building, as well as for the products we offer. As a result, our Service Partners are more knowledgeable and are confident discussing emissions and challenging their suppliers to improve. Impressively, two of our service partners have also joined Planet Mark to begin their net zero journeys.
By continuously educating and engaging our suppliers, we are fostering a collaborative environment where sustainable practices are prioritised, and collective progress is made toward our shared goals.
03
SOCIAL IMPACT
Giving Back
to our Communities
Giving back to our community has always been a part of our agenda because the actions we take together have the power to change lives. Our founder Terry has always been devoted to local initiatives, including contributing vast amounts of time and funding to a youth club in Bermondsey where sports keep young people off the streets. This has led to a strong culture of actively supporting various community projects and local charities throughout our history.
Supporting Charitable Causes
Our charity partnerships let us make a real difference in our communities. For over 55 years, social impact has been a key part of our agenda, and giving back has become an integral part of our culture. One of our proudest collaborations so far has been with St Mungo's, a leading UK homelessness charity. St Mungo’s have a clear goal – to end homelessness, supporting more than 28,000 people across 160 services, helping them to find paths away from homelessness.
Having worked with St Mungo’s since 2018, our corporate partnership became official in April 2023, focusing on a shared ambition to support our communities and end homelessness. Since becoming corporate partners, we have committed to investing £30,000 annually to support life-changing work. With a 33% increase in rough sleeping since this time last year, this is a crucial time to support charities like St Mungo’s.
Together, we've provided more than 337 volunteering hours across 14 activities, supporting hundreds of service users in their recovery from homelessness. Our efforts include collaborative volunteering days, fundraising events, and teaching classes for St Mungo’s service users to make a meaningful impact together.
Here are some of the ways we support St Mungo’s:
Fundraising Efforts
We’ve raised over £… through various fundraising events such as charity runs, bake sales, and abseils, and football tournaments. Our team has shown incredible enthusiasm and dedication, giving up their free time to raise some much-needed money for this worthy cause.
Volunteering
Over the last year, our colleagues and clients have contributed more than 150 hours of hands-on volunteering and have donated over £1,000 worth of volunteering materials. Activities have included pamper days, gardening events, summer BBQs, and decorating for St Mungo’s and their clients. These efforts have directly benefited those that use the St Mungo’s services, making the spaces they use feel refreshed and creating social opportunities.
Workshops
Members of our teams have run Digital Inclusion Workshops covering IT skills, social media, and more. This gave our colleagues the opportunity to share their expertise with those looking to learn or improve their digital skills and go beyond traditional volunteering activities to offer practical help to the homelessness charity.
Donations
Throughout the year, we frequently support St Mungo's with donations. So far, this has totalled £3,625 worth of Gift in Kind donations to support several St Mungo’s services. These donations have included furniture for various accommodation services, Christmas trees, books, Easter Eggs, clothes, Christmas gifts, and even an emergency fridge freezer to replace one that had broken down. These contributions make a huge difference to people’s everyday lives and reflect our commitment to enhancing the lives of those in need at St Mungo's.
HomelessWise Training
The HomelessWise Training programme from St Mungo’s offers practical guidance on how to offer help to those experiencing, or at risk of homelessness. We share this training with colleagues, service partners, and client building management teams to boost confidence in engaging with those that are homeless. The training has been highly successful, leading St Mungo’s to conduct pop-up sessions at client buildings to educate staff on how to support those that are rough sleeping. This was well received, and as a result, our client JLL nominated St Mungo’s as their Charity of The Year for 2024 at one of their buildings.
Volunteering:
It’s in our DNA
At our core lies an ethos of giving back to our communities through sponsorship, volunteering, and fundraising. Our focus is not just on the number of hours volunteered, but on the tangible impact we can make. We emphasise the local nature and impact of our efforts, ensuring that our actions tie into our strategy to Create Better Places.
This has always been a part of who we are, so social value forms a fundamental part of our DNA. That’s why we encourage all colleagues to participate in our activities, offering two volunteering days a year to ensure that everyone can positively impact the communities in which they live and work.
At our core lies an ethos of giving back to our communities through sponsorship, volunteering, and fundraising. Our focus is not just on the number of hours volunteered, but on the tangible impact we can make. We emphasise the local nature and impact of our efforts, ensuring that our actions tie into our strategy to Create Better Places.
This has always been a part of who we are, so social value forms a fundamental part of our DNA. That’s why we encourage all colleagues to participate in our activities, offering two volunteering days a year to ensure that everyone can positively impact the communities in which they live and work.
At our core lies an ethos of giving back to our communities through sponsorship, volunteering, and fundraising. Our focus is not just on the number of hours volunteered, but on the tangible impact we can make. We emphasise the local nature and impact of our efforts, ensuring that our actions tie into our strategy to Create Better Places.
This has always been a part of who we are, so social value forms a fundamental part of our DNA. That’s why we encourage all colleagues to participate in our activities, offering two volunteering days a year to ensure that everyone can positively impact the communities in which they live and work.
We are proud of the following statistics, which highlight our commitment to volunteering and social value: TOV edit
- Hours volunteered: Over the last year, we dedicated 732.5 hours to volunteering.
- Volunteer hours per employee:
- Monetary value of volunteering, fundraising, and sponsorship
In the past two years, we have undertaken several key fundraising activities, contributing significant value to our organisations. Highlights include:
- August 2023: Football Tournament for St Mungo’s: £1489 ?
- November 2023: St Mungo’s Abseil
- June 2023 CBRE Bike Ride: raise money for Macmillan Cancer Support They have raised an incredible £3,450 for Macmillan.
- May 2024: Dementia Action Week for Alzheimer’s Society
- June 2024: Nuts Challenge for St Mungo’s
Our partnerships extend beyond financial contributions. We offer our time and skills to support organisations, including Employment Fairs with local councils and CV advice sessions with Circle Collective. These opportunities allow us to leverage our day-to-day skills to benefit local organisations and communities more effectively than a monetary contribution might provide. Fundraising is still important though and our endeavours add significant value to some community groups. Through these collective endeavours, we continue to make a meaningful difference, living up to our commitment to create a better world.
Scroll to read more about our key partnerships and initiatives.
Key Partnerships
and Initiatives
In April 2024, we partnered with the Alzheimer’s Society, a charity that supports those affected by dementia. As Britain’s biggest killer and a topic close to our hearts, we hope that through this partnership, we can help to end the devastation caused by dementia and work towards a brighter future. We've donated £190,000 towards more in-depth research into research Vascular dementia, which is the second most common type of dementia in the UK.
We recently joined forces with Thames 21 to support biodiversity. They’re on a mission to improve waterways for people and wildlife and have a positive impact on local environments, which aligns perfectly with our own commitment to enhancing positive biodiversity effects through all our sustainability goals. They engage around 7000 volunteers in waterway improvement activities across London every year and remove an average of 200 tonnes of rubbish per year from the Thames alone. These activities are as much about education as they are immediate impact.
We work with Circle Collective to support young people to enter employment. We provide resources, mentoring, and opportunities for young people to gain the skills and confidence they need to succeed in their careers. Whether through CV advice, employment workshops, or sharing open opportunities, we’re committed to making a real impact. This collaboration not only helps us give back but also aligns perfectly with our sustainability goals by fostering social impact and creating lasting change.
Our support for Lewisham Local encompasses various programmes and initiatives. This includes Bank of Things which provides vital resources and gifts for vulnerable young people aged 11 to 25. We've also support Community Meal with food donations since January 2023. A service run by FoodCycle Lewisham; they deliver hot meals each week to the community. Through food donations from colleagues at our Service Support Centre, we've donated £642.69 worth of food towards the nutritious meals served at the Lewisham Irish Community Centre.
We’ve built up a strong relationship with Lewisham Hospital over the years, and regularly offer donations or our time with volunteering days. Recently, we donated 339 Easter Eggs to the children’s ward and sent some volunteers to tidy up the gardens and outdoor space
Client
Engagement
Our commitment to client engagement extends beyond traditional business interactions. Through our active involvement in community partnerships, we’ve found an excellent opportunity to give back to our charity friends while fostering collaboration across social and formal events with our clients.
A Human
Approach to Wellbeing
Our supportive and sensitive approach places a focus on the wellbeing and development of our colleagues. Over the years, we have worked to make our workplace one where our people feel supported and inspired to reach their full potential, and where excellent work comes with reward and recognition.
Having designed our sustainable workspace, we wanted it to be one where colleague wellbeing could thrive. We transformed the look and feel of the interior through the refurbishment, updating the building to create a light, calm, and functional space and creating a wellbeing room. Our goal was to offer our workforce a healthy and happy environment with a culture of equality, progression, and support. In line with our Putting People First pillar, this was the beginning of our path to championing and prioritising colleague wellbeing and satisfaction.
We seek to be the very best employer that prioritises being caring, inclusive, and socially responsible, and our benefits package exists to uphold this. BHSF RISE is our colleague health and wellbeing service and offers our teams 24/7 access to personalised, on-demand advice and support from a team of mental health, financial, and legal experts. With a 24-hour GP, free flu jabs, mental health first aiders, and the wellbeing hub that includes a 24/7 counselling service, our colleagues get the support needed to thrive in their roles.
The benefits are valued within our business, with more than 9% colleagues using RISE. By offering meaningful support, investing in wellbeing, and developing our colleagues, we can attract and retain the best talent and consequently ensure that each team member is an expert in their role.
Providing safe and healthy work environments also means paying a fair wage, offering welfare training, and not using zero-hour contracts. As a Recognised Service Provider with The Living Wage Foundation, we are committed to paying fair wages and pro-actively encourage our clients to pay a Real Living Wage. Through client collaboration, 85% of our colleagues are now being paid the real living wage, demonstrating our dedication to supporting colleagues’ wellbeing and promoting a fair and inclusive work environment.
Training and Apprenticeships
Investing in the development of our teams means that we benefit from industry experts who can help us to achieve our goals. We’ve got a strong history or attracting and retaining talent and that’s largely down to our commitment to, and treatment of our staff.
We want our teams to flourish, so invest in training that supports professional and personal development. Offering bespoke comprehensive training that includes sustainability, customer experience, mental health, cyber and neurodiversity awareness, we provide training through two main routes. One is online, self-administered courses via Uhub while the other is through our Subject Matter Experts delivering personal support either in person or remotely.
Our in house delivered IOSH Training from The Institution of Occupational Safety and Health is given to colleagues, clients, and service partners. Focused on workplace safety and sustainability, the course helps attendees to level up their understanding of sustainable business practices.
We’re also investing in the future by providing apprenticeships within our business. By offering an avenue into our industry through apprenticeship schemes, we are offering opportunities to our communities where they might otherwise be unavailable. Our aim is to help shape the next generation of industry experts to push environmentally friendly practices within our field and support sustainable business.
By offering apprenticeship schemes within our business, we open access to various professional roles and help to remove barriers around our industry. Our schemes have proved hugely successful and have helped us to find and nurture a whole range of talent. We have 16 people signed up working on an apprenticeship, including our People Relations Administrator currently working through her HR Support Level 3 qualification, and 8 Site Managers working through their Facilities Management Supervisor Level 3 qualifications. In our Service Support Centre we have 3 apprentices completing their Business Administration Level 3 qualification.
Measuring our Social Impact
Our sustainability programme has many layers of important activity which we are reflecting on within this report. At a broad level though there are two complimentary sides of the coin: carbon reduction and social impact. Both are measured and certified through Planet Mark, and we’re pleased to be able report on the value of our social impact from last year in a consistent and detailed way.
The TOMS reporting process provided by Planet Mark is the system we use to measure and certify our social impact programme. It is complex but comprehensive and Planet Mark take all our initiatives and allocate a value based on the cost of running the activity and its relative importance.
Activities are split into 5 broad categories covering recruitment of colleagues, volunteering, donations, and procurement. We have been certified by Planet Mark to have generated £1.4million in social value last year. This is a considerable increase on previous years, where we averaged around £250,000 annually, and while we were driving YOY increases, the increase this year outstrips anything previously achieved.
This years figure encompasses all our contributions to social value, including fundraising, volunteering, education, donations, and more. It’s important to us that we offer our communities not just monetary support- but also that our support in kind truly makes a tangible difference.
Going forward, our plan is to embed our social impact activity as a key business function, central to driving the organisation forward as a whole, compatible to our carbon reduction programme. A key component in delivering this would be the appointment of a Social Impact manager to lead our programme of activity.
Equality,
Diversity, and Inclusion
We’re proud of our commitment to Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI), and are dedicated to fostering equality within our business and the wider community. We use Colleague Engagement Surveys to gather feedback on levels of wellbeing at work, and our latest reports showing that our efforts to prioritise EDI are paying off. Our results from 2024 reveal that 87% of our employees feel that their line manager cares about them, 90% agree that we represent our values, 78% feel they have someone to talk to about their health, and 87% feel they can be themselves at work.
Our Gender Pay Gap Report also underscores our dedication to fostering equality within our business and the wider community. Our latest report shows that, on average, our female colleagues earn 5.2% less than male colleagues. In comparison, the UK average mean gender pay gap is 12.67%, and the median is 13.65%, showing us that while there is still work to do, we’re on the right tracks.
We’re all about treating everyone fairly, no matter their background or individual characteristics. By signing up to Business in the Community’s (BITC) Race at Work Charter, we’re setting clear EDI goals, and our team of more than 1000 colleagues reflects London’s rich diversity and talent. Our initiatives focus on creating opportunities locally and we’re committed to recruiting a wide range of talent at all levels. We also work closely with charities and local councils to make sure our workforce is diverse, and support individuals from diverse backgrounds through employment, education, charity work, and volunteering.
We celebrate this through events like Black History Month and Pride, or with Sparkle Awards and personal success stories. To support our colleagues for whom English is not their first language, we offer free English lessons to help develop their confidence and communication skills at work. This is just one example of how we prioritise ethical employment standards, colleague wellbeing, EDI, and ongoing development. This reflects our ongoing dedication to fostering a supportive, inclusive, and diverse workplace where every individual can thrive.
04
GOVERNANCE
Sustainable
Business
Strategy
We have always been aware of the impact of our business operations on the environment and the need to manage this closely. Cleaning, traditionally, has been an industry where use of chemical-based products amongst a transient unengaged labour force poses a challenge to being sustainable if not managed carefully. The way we think about cleaning is changing however, and in 2021 we launched our sustainable business strategy,
‘Better Places’, with an aligned purpose and vision.
This was a set of commitments and business objectives designed to govern how we operate across all business areas, and provide guidance and strategic direction on decision making. The intent being that our business should be governed sustainably against the strategy parameters.
The strategy has four focus areas under which key business activities and commitments were outlined.
ISO 14001
We recognise the increasing challenges posed by climate change and how these affect all businesses and communities. We are proud to have held ISO 14001 for a considerable period, which is managed by our HSQE Director, Gary Williamson. This certification provides us with a structured and internationally recognised framework to manage our environmental risk and take advantage of any opportunities to continually improve.
Sustainability is firmly embedded in our environmental management systems. Our proactive approach has led to real results over recent years, including significant waste reduction, lower fuel usage, and boosting our team’s environmental awareness through IOSH Environment for Business Courses. We are transforming how we operate and having ISO 14001 supports our efforts by enhancing environmental performance, ensuring we follow regulations, and showing our commitment to building a sustainable future.
ISO 14001 is also key to our risk management. It improves our processes and provides external verification of our controls, helping us to show operational excellence and meet our commitments to stakeholders. To us, the certification means that we only say things we can prove. We’re serious about our environmental responsibilities and it’s important to us that we can demonstrate this. By including climate action requirements, ISO 14001 helps us go beyond compliance to drive real change.
Our Sustainability strategies are all about being better today than we were yesterday. ISO 14001 marks are evidence that we are doing things properly when it comes to sustainability, quality and environment, which also builds trust amongst all stakeholders and clients. Staying aligned with this international standard is crucial for us now and in the future.
Certification with Planet Mark
Since teaming up with Planet Mark, we've made smarter choices to boost our sustainability. With their tools and structure, and our determination and transition plan, we’ve cut down carbon emissions, improved operational efficiency, and are committed to hitting Net Zero by 2030.
Planet Mark’s reporting frameworks let us accurately measure our impact, giving us the structure of what to focus on when it comes to sustainability. We aim to lower carbon emissions and increase social value, and by sharing our data with Planet Mark, they certify our results. This shows us and our clients that our efforts are paying off and highlights areas to focus our attention to become even more sustainable and socially responsible.
Thanks to Planet Mark, we regularly review monitor, measure, and report on the environmental and ecological impacts (scope 1-3) of our operations. The TOMs reporting framework helps us to track not just carbon but also social value, giving us the insight we need to see our impact and act on it.
Our partnership with Planet Mark has helped us to set carbon emissions targets and plan our path to Net Zero by 2030. Their support keeps us on track, so that we’re always transparent about our progress. With annual certifications for carbon emissions and social value, we get a clear picture of how we’re doing and can adapt where necessary. Striving to be the UK’s most sustainable cleaning company, our focus will always be on continuous improvement and being open about our journey.
What’s next?
As we continue our Net Zero journey, we’re looking ahead at what next milestones will support our ambitious targets.
We continue to set bold targets for ourselves so that we can move can further and faster towards Net Zero. Our next goal is to achieve Net Zero for our Scope 1 and 2 emissions within the next 12 months. This needs the collation of vast amounts of data across our procurement and operational activity, but as mentioned earlier in this report our groundwork sets us in good stead to really push for this next milestone. From April 2025, we are committed to achieving under 1tCO2e per year for Scope 1 and 2.
Our Planet Mark Supplier Engagement Award last year really encouraged us that we are on the right track and setting the industry benchmark in this area. It’s vital for progress against scope 3 reporting of course, and we are really pleased that all our service partners have agreed to reduce their carbon emissions by 10% year on year in a collaborative commitment towards Net Zero joint success. We know progress on Net Zero can’t be achieved alone, so this group effort will really see rewards we can all be proud of.
We will launch our ‘Better Choices’ programme. Our Planet Mark certification has let us generate the types of data often not previously considered within our business. For example, how much carbon is associated with us buying a flat mop or with our employees’ commute to work? With this data, we have more knowledge than ever before and can use this to help our clients to better shape their Net Zero journey and product choices. We are now able to share site-level carbon emission data with our clients so that they can really understand the value and drivers of emissions for their building.
We’re extending our environmental stewardship with a focus on education and sharing knowledge. Our IOSH training has been successful internally and amongst some clients, and this year we plan to extend this so that any client has the option to attend our sessions. Our colleagues are kept informed of our sustainability agenda and we will launch sustainability training modules on our Uhub platform this year. Our aim is for all SSC colleagues to have complete the IOSH Environment for Business training, and for all colleagues to have completed in-house Sustainability training by 2025.
We’re working towards a full electric vehicle fleet by April 2025. This will support our overall target of reducing our carbon footprint and leading the way for businesses in our field. We began this transition in 2019 by moving away from petrol and diesel vehicles towards more environmentally friendly electric vehicles instead. Currently our electric fleet comprises on 65% of all current vehicles which are all powered by fully renewable energy sources with guaranteed REGO certificates.
Our target is to generate £1.5m Social Value per year from April 2025. We are well on course for this and will be recruiting a full-time Social Value Coordinator into the People Team to help with this goal.
Since working with Made Blue Foundation, we have made a significant contribution to their global water project, totalling 2,535,598 litres so far. From 2025 our target is to be achieving a 3million litre water donation annually through Made Blue, making a tangible difference to some of the world’s poorest communities.
Finally, this year we take a step towards increasing our own energy security by installing solar panels to support energy efficiency for our Service Support Centre in Lewisham. We estimate that the production of clean renewable energy each year will reduce our carbon emissions by approximately 5 tC02e each year, from August 2024.
thanks for reading
If you have any questions, comments or feedback on this report we’d love to hear from you.
Equally if you’d like to know more about our sustainability programme, or want to work together on an initiative, please get in touch.