Turnkey have committed to being a carbon neutral business in a move that flags the importance for organisations of all sizes to tackle climate change.
Recent figures indicate that around 5.9 million SMEs operate in the UK, employing over 16.6 million people and contributing £2.2 trillion to the economy. The majority of these are small (0-49 employees), 35,600 are medium-sized (50-249 employees) and 7,700 have more than 250 staff.
Turnkey has established a dedicated internal team that measures the company’s annual carbon footprint in terms of overall carbon emissions. Representatives from each global office collaborated to obtain 2020’s carbon emission tonnage using Ecoact’s published methodologies. Sources of carbon generation for the company included electricity and gas to power home workstations and lighting, heating and cooling systems, as well as any pre-pandemic business travel.
Turnkey has compensated for these emissions, with help from sustainability experts at Carbon Footprint Ltd and Nori. By supporting high quality carbon offset projects at Carbon Footprint, Turnkey has contributed to the Kenya Tree Planting project, Clean and Efficient Cooking and Heating project in China and The Breathing Space Improved Cooking Stoves Programme in India. Projects were carefully chosen by the internal team to target UN sustainable development goals whilst maximising social community benefits.
Nori utilises a carbon marketplace to incentivise farmers to store carbon in soil as a carbon capture mechanism through regenerative, climate positive agriculture practices. Turnkey has helped enable unique soil management and crop production activities at Garrett Land and Cattle to sequester 1.1 tonnes of carbon per acre. This has increased the amount of nitrogen in topsoils, producing better crop yields and healthier soils whilst removing carbon from the atmosphere.
2020 saw a raft of pledges from large enterprises including Sainsbury’s, EY, BP, Delta Air and FIFA, with the latter promising to deliver a carbon neutral World Cup in 2022. Media company Sky, having been carbon neutral in terms of its direct emissions since 2006, will now cut emissions by its consumers, suppliers and businesses, while Microsoft has stated that it will remove all the carbon that it has emitted since it was founded in 1975.
“Climate change is the undisputed challenge of our time but the scale of what needs to be done can seem daunting, particularly to smaller businesses,” says Richard Hunt, managing director at Turnkey Consulting. “As well as taking our own responsibilities seriously with definitive action we want to show that it is straightforward for organisations of any size to make a difference. The UK’s vibrant and extensive SME sector already plays a vital economic role, with many innovative organisations developing creative ways to resolve issues of the day. We believe committing to being carbon neutral is a logical part of business strategy.”
For more information, please contact:
Kate Alexander
PR Consultant
Email: kate@alexanderpr.co.uk
Tel: +44 (0)7788 584413
