Sustainability and Climate Change Strategy update 2025

Documents

Introduction

Our Sustainability and Climate Change Strategy 2021-2026 (‘SCCS’) was published in September 2021.

Within that strategy we:

• set ourselves the main goal of achieving net zero direct emissions by 2040 and net zero emissions by 2045
• identified annual targets of 11% carbon reduction
• outlined 7 key themes to aid progression towards net zero between 2021 and 2026; and
• committed to annual progress reports

We have now reached the last year of our strategy.

This progress report will:

1. provide an update on what we’ve delivered over the past financial year
2. set out the latest delivery plans
3. further revise some of the original SCCS commitments relating to carbon reduction, following last year’s initial revision

To achieve this, we have:

• set out our recent achievements and supporting actions during 2024-25
• assessed the outcome of these actions in relation to the central goal of carbon reduction
• clarified the carbon reporting boundary and carbon emissions targets for the year ahead
• reflected on our strategic direction for the future, with a particular focus on demonstrating how our journey to net zero will progress

Our sustainability work to date

Our first progress update was made available internally in September 2022.

Our Year 2 progress report, covering September 2022 – September 2023, is available on request.

In Year 3, we announced a new approach to progress reporting by introducing ‘SCCS Updates’.  These annual reports serve three key functions:

1. They act as the main mechanism for providing updates on delivery against our original SCCS commitments, with critical analysis of our quarterly carbon reduction targets provided in the SCCS Update of the previous year
2. They provide updates on future delivery plans
3. They provide an opportunity to update the original SCCS commitments themselves, where appropriate, especially in relation to carbon reduction and opportunities for improved accuracy

These updates are now produced once the data is available, shortly after the start of a new financial year.

Our Year 3 progress report - ‘SCCS Update 2024’ - covered the period from April 2023 to March 2024 and is available on our website.

Review of progress 2024-25

This section summarises the progress made during 2024-25 in relation to the themed action areas set out in the SCCS.

Themed actions areas

Energy use and water management

AIM: to manage and reduce energy and water consumption through improved efficiency.

During 2024-25, we:

• achieved the first full year of electricity efficiency benefits arising from projects completed at Meadowbank House (‘MBH’) in early 2024, including an energy-efficient lighting installation programme, an information technology network equipment refresh, and the decommissioning of virtual desktop infrastructure servers
• installed presence detectors and updated heating, ventilation and air conditioning controls in meeting rooms, which are expected to deliver further electricity savings
• delivered a gas consumption reduction via the Building Utilisation Strategy, previously introduced at MBH in 2023.  A key action in 2024-25 was the relocation of our cooler working area to a larger operational wing in October 2024 and the extension of its availability from 3 to 5 days each week

Waste and circular economy

AIM: to minimise waste and maximise recycling by purchasing smarter and engaging with our staff.

During 2024-25 we:

• re-used, refurbished, or recycled 3,793 kg of IT equipment and 3,824 kg of office furniture via ongoing partnerships with Restore Technology and Kinross Wooden Products, creating environmental, social, and economic benefits
• recorded an average recycling rate of 68% at MBH and 57% at our St Vincent Plaza (‘SVP’) office
• continued to benefit from IT equipment-related resource efficiencies achieved through our participation in a Scottish Government procurement framework.  This framework, which we helped to inform, enables public sector organisations to obtain equipment with a lower waste potential. This includes laptops that are partially manufactured from recycled materials and ocean bound plastics, and that are easier to repair and more recyclable at end-of-life.  We have enhanced these benefits at RoS by introducing a system to track the longevity of items and to record any reasons for failure. This helps to inform future purchasing decisions.  While these arrangements are not new, this is the first time we have captured and reported them in the context of our SCCS

Digital innovations

AIM: to minimise our use of paper and utilise digital technology

During 2024-25, our new system for monitoring paper use has allowed us to establish a baseline figure of 1,489,383 printed sheets.  We will monitor this throughout the year and address any identified opportunities for reduction.

Sustainable travel and staff commuting

AIM: to encourage active and sustainable travel for commuting and business travel

During 2024-25 we:

• reintroduced social events during Bike Week for the first time since the pandemic, with tours of our on-site facilities led by our Cycling Champions at both offices. Dr Bike mechanics were arranged for the event at MBH while at SVP, a cycling swap event was held in celebration of Great Big Green Week
• launched the online Cycle Forum to encourage collaboration between existing and potential future cyclists across the organisation
• benefitted from the refurbishment of on-site cycling storage and changing facilities at SVP
• updated our Green Travel Policy to align it more clearly with wider organisational sustainability ambitions

Sustainable procurement

AIM: to measure and reduce the environmental impact of our supply chain by working with suppliers and contractors

During 2024-25 we:

• commenced nine new or renewed contracts that include sustainability requirements
• worked with our ‘hard services’ contractor to finalise arrangements for recording their service delivery-related emissions. This will be the first step in a phased introduction of procurement-related emissions to our carbon footprint
• worked with our catering and cleaning contractors to support the delivery of their Sustainability Action Plan commitments
• updated our Sustainable Procurement Policy to align it more clearly with wider organisational sustainability ambitions

Biodiversity

AIM: to protect and enhance biodiversity on our estate and contribute further afield

During 2024-25 we:

• ran a new pollinator-friendly species planting trial in the wooded area at MBH, where challenging conditions have previously prevented other species from thriving
• ran a planting trial on the MBH sedum roof to supplement the wildflower population
• replenished half-barrel planters at SVP with various pollinator-friendly species and ran a wildflower planting trial
• installed two bug boxes at SVP and secured agreement from our landlord for future bird box installations
• held initial discussions around a proposed colleague gardening scheme at MBH

Green recovery: hybrid working

AIM: to capture emissions associated with hybrid working and identify opportunities for reduction

During 2024-25 we:

• engaged with Scottish Government to obtain assurance that our approach to calculating home working emissions is aligned to theirs
• identified a small improvement to our home working emissions calculation methodology, to be implemented from 2025-26 onwards

Supporting actions

To support and extend delivery under these themed action areas, a variety of additional actions have been carried out.  During 2024-25, we:

Engaged with colleagues and tenants

• Ran a programme to engage colleagues and tenants online and in person, including:
  • Plant Swap and Bike Week event in both offices
  • climate-friendly Pop-Up Café at MBH during Climate Week, run in collaboration with our catering supplier and accompanied by colleagues’ ‘Stories for Change’
  • Online Carbon Literacy and Food Waste workshops for colleagues during Climate Week, in collaboration with Scottish Government
  • blog and video feature for Global Recycling Day, detailing the journeys of our waste streams
  • regular Environmental Working Group (EWG) meetings and EWG-led written communications
  • website improvements, which also help to publicly share our sustainability work
• Regularly engaged with our new network of Environmental Champions and welcomed our first member from a tenant organisation that shares our office space
• Launched two new online resources for colleagues:
  • a Sustainability Hub, providing a one-stop shop for information on sustainability at work and at home
  • a Sustainability Channel as part of a wider MS Teams-based colleague community connection space
• Held quarterly Environmental Management Group meetings to provide strategic oversight and support for sustainability
• Collaborated internally to agree arrangements for delivering on our Social Impact Pledge to help others across Scotland to achieve net zero

Engaged externally

• Developed a new partnership with National Records of Scotland and worked closely to conduct mutual peer reviews of statutory climate change reports
• Continued to participate in national public sector knowledge exchange via the Sustainable Scotland Network, the Public Sector Climate Adaptation Network, and the Environmental Managers Forum. In addition, we formed new partnerships with a Scottish public sector environmental engagement group and the UK-wide Cross Government Cycling Network

Improved processes

• Began to embed sustainability into performance management arrangements in the key business area of procurement
• Established a Sustainability and Ethics Committee to replace the Environmental Management Group
• Improved arrangements for travel governance and data gathering through updates to our Travel and Subsistence Policy and associated procedures, and by collaborating with Scottish Government to compare approaches on other types of data-gathering
• Prepared for the introduction of annual sustainability policy assurance exercises from 2025-26
• Continued to develop our ‘benefits realisation’ process to record and learn from our carbon reduction interventions
• Updated our Environmental Policy to align it more clearly with wider organisational sustainability ambitions and to add a single-use plastics reduction commitment
• Embedded sustainability more fully into organisational decision-making by building sustainability considerations into our governance group paper templates and our Risk Management Framework
• Continued to engage in the national agenda for climate resilience, to support our development of a Climate Risk and Adaptation Plan
• Worked with an innovation partner to explore new ways to decarbonise, supporting our pathway to net zero

Outcomes of action delivery

Various positive outcomes have resulted from the delivery of the actions described above, including in relation to our central goal of carbon reduction.

Background

We previously evaluated our carbon footprint by comparing it with previous years’ and against the targeted 11% annual reduction value.  However, as explained in the SCCS Update 2024, changes we made to our carbon footprint measurement process mean that these comparisons are no longer meaningful - this means we no longer make like-for-like comparisons between different years. As an example, in 2021-22 we added home working emissions to our carbon footprint. This had not been reported before and increased both the scope, and value, of our carbon reporting.  This expansion of our carbon boundary will initially increase our carbon footprint. However, this does not represent a decline in progress; rather, it is a demonstration of our commitment to becoming more transparent and proactive.

In 2024-25, we added two further emission sources to our reporting: employee commuting and fluorinated greenhouse gases (‘F-gases’).  During the year, we also changed our method of calculating home working emissions to improve accuracy. In addition, we adjusted our office-related emissions by removing those generated by tenants at MBH. Our aim continues to be the development of a clearer understanding of our pathway towards net zero, and in so doing, to replace our annual 11% targets with more evidence-based annual targets.

In the SCCS Update 2024, we set out our alternative plans for evaluating annual carbon figures. Firstly, we committed to comparing our total carbon footprint to the new 2024-25 target set at the start of the year for our overall carbon footprint.  Secondly, we committed to focus on the ‘Scope 1’ element of our carbon footprint – the part relating to our ‘direct’ carbon emissions.

We compared it to:

• a 2024-25 Scope 1 target set at the start of the year
• previous years’ Scope 1 emissions records

This is only possible because the way we measure this part of our carbon footprint as it does not fluctuate year-on-year.

2024-25 results and analysis

In 2024-25, our carbon footprint (the total tonnage of carbon emitted from organisational operations) was 1,203 tonnes, which is 4% better than our targeted tonnage.

Our carbon footprint is made up of four emission sources, which collectively account for 99% of the 1,203 tonnes: home working, office electricity use, office gas use and commuting.

The large rise in our home working emissions since last year is due to our new calculation methodology.

Our performance over the year, in relation to the quarterly targets we set in the SCCS Update 2024, is as follows:

The Scope 1 element of our carbon footprint, which mainly consists of office gas emissions, accounted for 140 of the overall 1,203 tonnes, which is 7% better than our targeted Scope 1 tonnage.

Our performance over the year, in relation to the Scope 1 quarterly targets we set in the SCCS Update 2024, is as follows:

F-gases – one of our new emission sources – have a relatively high global warming potential. However, we experienced no F-gas losses over the year, which helped us to meet our targets.

These percentage improvements against the 2024-25 target should be viewed in the context of the stringent process for setting targets, which already takes account of:

• expected carbon reductions from the LED lighting installation;
• ICT equipment improvements; and
• the reallocation of MBH tenants’ emissions

Our approach to target setting resulted in these being set at a more ambitious level than would have otherwise been possible

Further information

Our 2024-25 Public Bodies Climate Change Duties Report, which will be submitted to Scottish Government in November 2025 and shared online, will reflect the figures quoted above and provide further analysis in relation to certain aspects.  It will also provide a detailed account of our climate change adaptation work.

2025-26 Carbon commitments

Reporting boundary

As a starting point in setting out our approach to carbon reduction in the year ahead, it is important to clarify our ‘reporting boundary’, i.e. the emission sources that will constitute our carbon footprint.

As set out in the SCCS Update 2024, carbon emissions are arranged into three categories, or ‘scopes’:

• Scope 1: direct emissions from sources owned or controlled by an organisation
• Scope 2: indirect emissions from the purchase and use of electricity, steam, heating and cooling
• Scope 3: all other indirect emissions that occur in the upstream and downstream activities of an organisation

We will gradually expand our reporting boundary to allow us to account for, and influence, a wider range of emission sources.  We have committed to act in a practical and meaningful way, by only introducing new emission sources when we are able to measure them accurately and take action to reduce them.

Purchased goods and services have been identified as a key priority, and we intend to introduce these incrementally.  From 2025-26 we will add emissions from our facilities management ‘hard services’ contract, which delivers mechanical and electrical maintenance across our physical building infrastructure.  We have been working with the supplier over the last two years to agree a process for capturing the required data and to understand how these emissions could be influenced.

Our new reporting boundary will therefore be as follows:

Targets

In the SCCS Update 2024, we introduced a new way of calculating targets that are meaningful, evidence-based and achievable. We explained that in these early stages of our pathway towards net zero by 2045 we would set interim annual targets. This allows us to account for fluctuations in our carbon footprint whilst we add new emission sources.

We have set our 2025-26 targets by taking account of:

• monthly patterns from existing emission sources over the previous year
• the impact of a new home working emissions calculation methodology which will be introduced
• the commuting patterns measured in our latest annual survey
• predicted emissions from the first set of procured goods and services to be added to our carbon footprint
• anticipated changes to emissions arising from planned activities during the year
• the impact of a significant reduction in the carbon emissions associated with grid electricity generation in 2025-26

Using this process, we have created annual and quarterly targets for total carbon tonnage and Scope 1 ‘direct’ carbon emissions. While the boundary of our 2025-26 carbon footprint is wider than last year’s, these targets are more stringent because emissions from three of our key sources – home working, office electricity use and commuting – are expected to be lower.

• Overall carbon footprint for 2025-26: 1,027 tonnes
  • carbon footprint for Q1: 258 tonnes
  • carbon footprint for Q2: 242 tonnes
  • carbon footprint for Q3: 269 tonnes
  • carbon footprint for Q4: 258 tonnes
• Scope 1 emissions target for 2025-26: 140 tonnes
  • Scope 1 emissions for Q1: 27 tonnes
  • Scope 1 emissions for Q2: 17 tonnes
  • Scope 1 emissions for Q3: 46 tonnes
  • Scope 1 emissions for Q4: 50 tonnes

In line with best practice, we will regularly examine emissions data to review whether we are on track to meet our goals and may reprofile target figures if needed.

Beyond 2030, when our reporting boundary has stabilised and there is a clearer understanding of the wider, more complex emission sources, we will be able to estimate our distance from net zero and quantify the annual emissions reductions we will need to achieve to reach this goal.

2025-26 Priorities

During 2025-26, we will continue to deliver against the seven themed action areas in the SCCS, with a particular focus on how activity in these areas will contribute to our journey towards net zero. Our action-planning is guided by our statutory responsibilities under the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 (as amended by the Climate Change (Emissions Reduction Targets) (Scotland) Act 2019), which states that we must act in the way:

• best calculated to contribute to the delivery of Scotland’s national emissions reduction targets (known as ‘mitigation’)
• best calculated to help deliver Scotland’s statutory climate change adaptation programme
• that it considers is most sustainable

Key priorities for 2025-26 include:

• continuing to work with current and future suppliers to prepare for the addition of further purchased goods and services to our carbon footprint in 2026-27
• continuing to support colleagues in reducing emissions at home
• continuing to provide additional help for colleagues to commute by active travel or public transport
• continuing to prepare for the commencement of significant carbon reduction within our estate via our 10-Year Investment Plan
• continuing to develop our Climate Risk and Adaptation Plan
• continuing to explore opportunities for us to help others across Scotland to achieve net zero
• continuing to work with key business areas to consider new opportunities for empowerment and collaboration
• continuing and enhancing whole-workforce engagement
• continuing to work with innovation partners to explore new ways to decarbonise, supporting our pathway to net zero
• building our understanding of carbon insetting, to inform future target-setting
• preparing for the introduction of a new SCCS following the expiry of the current strategy in 2026, taking account of national emissions reduction targets, including emerging five-year carbon budgets

The following graphic provides a new illustration of our pathway to net zero, updated from last year’s version to show recent developments: