As part of our commitment to sustainability, we’ve been working with CarbonQuota to measure, reduce and certify our carbon emissions. We’re thrilled to share that this hard work continues to pay off and we’re now a certified carbon reduced operation!
About CarbonQuota
CarbonQuota was originally launched to help increase the sustainability of production processes in the packaging and print sector. The organisation went on to develop one of the world’s largest independent databases of carbon emissions for the sector and the most granular carbon calculation engine.
We’ve appointed CarbonQuota to independently calculate the footprint of our operations and help us to achieve the international target for all organisations: reducing the footprint of our business (by 95%) and supply chain (by 50%) by 2030. It’s an ambitious aim and a complex undertaking, but we recognise the importance of minimising our environmental impact and we’re proud to say we’re already making positive progress.
Carbon Reduced
Our latest CarbonQuota report shows that the CO2e[1] emissions associated with our direct operations have reduced year-on-year, and we’ve therefore been certified as a carbon reduced operation by CarbonQuota[2].
In total, our carbon footprint decreased by 26 tonnes of CO2e between 2021 and 2022[3]. One key area of improvement was with our electricity emissions, where changing our heating and lighting habits helped us to significantly reduce our output. The intensity of our CO2e emissions per million pounds of turnover saw a reduction of 17% during the same period[4], while there were also reductions per building footprint (m²) and per full-time employee.
CarbonQuota’s findings highlight how the efforts we’ve made to increase our energy efficiency and reduce our energy consumption are helping us to move towards our carbon reduction targets. We’re continuing to seek new ways to reduce our carbon footprint – such as our upcoming plans to bring our head office and warehouse together into one efficient, central location – and look forward to seeing the changes we’re making reflected in the data in the coming years.
Our Green Initiatives
We’re also continuing to champion sustainability across our business by changing our working practices, embracing innovation and pursuing sustainable solutions.
For example, we’re increasing the use of alternative materials in our product ranges, with display products made from cardboard, wood and organic fibres such as rice husk, corn starch and bamboo currently under development.
Our Ecovision and EcoPlastic ranges are also expanding to include a wider selection of sustainable products, while our famous Ecovision cardboard corr-a-clips continue to set the standard for recyclable display unit fixtures.
It’s great to see that our efforts to support sustainability and reduce our carbon footprint are beginning to show such positive results. Now that we’ve been named a carbon reduced operation, we’re eager to maintain this status and continue on our journey towards net zero.
For more information on the results of our operational carbon footprint assessment, please contact sustainability@harrisonretail.com or view our certificate online.
[1] Carbon dioxide equivalent, the standard international measurement of carbon footprint.
[2] The CO2e emissions associated with our direct operations have reduced year-on-year (certified: CarbonQuota 2023).
[3] Our absolute operational CO2e emissions have reduced by 26 tonnes of CO2e from our baseline year (certified: CarbonQuota 2023).
[4] The intensity of CO2e emissions per million pounds of turnover associated with our direct operations have reduced by 17% between 2021 & 2022 (certified: CarbonQuota 2023).
As part of our commitment to continually improve our business practices and corporate social responsibility management, we are thrilled to announce that we have been awarded the Gold EcoVadis Sustainability Rating.
EcoVadis is a globally recognised sustainability ratings provider, focusing on providing businesses with the tools needed to improve their sustainability practises and effectively manage corporate social responsibility.
Essential for smart and responsible business, sustainability can be broken down into four key themes which businesses are then assessed on:
- Environment
- Ethics
- Labour & Human Rights
- Sustainable Procurement
After achieving the Bronze rating in 2021 from EcoVadis, we followed the guidance detailed in our report and set out to significantly improve our policies and business practices in each of these four areas in order to achieve a higher rating for 2022. One of our key focuses was to become a carbon measured operation, which we achieved earlier this year by working with CarbonQuota.
This year’s report has identified that we are now ranked in the top 3% of companies rated by EcoVadis in our industry. But we won’t stop there.
We understand the effect that our business can have on the world around us and we care about working hard to minimise that impact as much as possible. Our new Gold Rating is an excellent acknowledgement that the work we are doing to improve is having an impact and serves as encouragement for us to take it even further.
We will be using this latest EcoVadis report to continue building on our corporate social responsibility policies and helping to champion a more sustainable future for the industry.
For more information on the results of our latest assessment, please contact our team via sustainability@harrisonretail.com, alternatively you can view our latest certificate online.
We are thrilled to announce that we are now a certified carbon measured operation. We are working with CarbonQuota to measure, reduce, and certify our carbon emissions in alignment with the Our Green Promise commitment we made to minimise our impact on the planet.
Current international targets require that, by 2030, all organisations must reduce their carbon footprint within their own business by 95%, and within their supply chain by 50%. We’re committed to achieving this target whilst acknowledging the complexity of such an undertaking.
Being one of the country’s leading suppliers of retail components and POS products, we understand how much plastic is used to create shelf management, price communication, and merchandising solutions in-store. That’s why we launched Our Green Promise, to pledge our commitment to helping minimise the environmental impact of such solutions, and why we have appointed CarbonQuota to drive this commitment even further by independently calculating the footprint of our operations.
CarbonQuota have been working with us this year to extensively identify and measure the carbon footprint of our direct operations. Following the collation of this data, we now have a detailed report which has determined our baseline, covering our full Scope 1 and 2 carbon emissions, against which we can now build measurable carbon reduction goals and actively work to reduce our 2021 carbon hotspots. We have also started to assess our scope 3 emissions and plan to have this measurement fully completed within the coming years.
Since working with CarbonQuota, we have already started to explore more ways to reduce our carbon footprint by relocating our head office to a more central location which has reduced commuting distances and time for our colleagues by 35%. This is also encouraging more lift-sharing, cycle-to-work opportunities, and making the switch to electric company vehicles.
We are also continually developing our sustainable product material offerings to support these goals. Our 100% recyclable EcoPlastic range of POS components, which use a modified plastic polymer that breaks down into completely natural compounds, continues to expand. And our ground-breaking Ecovision range is also in development with some exciting announcements to come.
We’re proud of our achievements and product innovations to date, so to now have the initial ‘certification of operational carbon footprint assessment’ from CarbonQuota means it is time for us to work even harder to reduce our carbon emissions and encourage a more sustainable future for the industry.
For more information on the results of our operational carbon footprint assessment, please contact sustainability@harrisonretail.com, alternatively you can view our certificate online.