Introduction
Squeaky Clean Energy Group (“Squeaky”) is a business founded with a mission to accelerate the world’s transition to clean energy. We have the protection of the environment at the centre of everything we do and are committed to being as sustainable as possible in our day-to-day business operations by minimising our carbon emissions. We are working towards producing a full carbon emissions and annual impact report.
As an accredited B Corp organisation, Squeaky meets the highest standards for social and environmental performance. We were recognised as being ‘Best For The World’ in 2022, meaning we are in the top 5% of similar-sized B Corps globally for our governance.
We foster a culture within Squeaky that ensures all staff understand they can make a significant contribution to the company being a leader in environmental matters.
Our policy is to comply with or exceed the requirements of environmental legislation and regulation.
Purpose And Scope
The purpose of this policy is to ensure that environmental and sustainability concerns are considered in all aspects of the day-to-day running of the organisation. It applies to employees, contractors, consultants, agency workers or any self-employed individuals working for the company, referred to as (“Staff”).
All staff have a role to play in minimising our impact on the environment, and we encourage all staff to adopt the environmental considerations and best practices described in this policy into their day-to-day work activities. This policy goes hand in hand with our more extensive CSR policy and we are working towards ever more robust measurement and reporting of environmental initiatives and climate-related targets.
Business Model
The key to our business model is that all our employees are remote workers, and as such we do not maintain a permanent office building. Instead, staff work from home with most meetings taking place remotely via Teams. We have a bookable shared co-working office space which can be accessed when needed. We hire meeting rooms at venues readily accessible by public transport.
The specifics of this environmental policy for key areas are as follows:
Materials and Waste
- We are, as far as is reasonably practicable, a paperless business.
- Where materials or equipment are required for the company, we aim to actively choose recycled, recyclable and sustainable options that are environmentally friendly;
- We regularly review and explore measures for the reduction of volumes of all waste materials generated by the company in all settings;
- We expect employees to explore opportunities for recycling all possible waste materials generated by work. Electronic equipment and peripherals provided by the company will be collected in at the end of its useful life or when an employee leaves and will be reused or recycled where possible. Our aim is to recycle any waste material that can be recycled.
Energy Usage
- We ensure that employees are energy-efficient aware and have access to a copy of this environmental policy.
- Staff work from home and are encouraged to choose a green electricity tariff.
- We encourage our employees to aim to reduce levels of energy consumption. This includes encouraging working practices where equipment such as computers, screens, lights, phones, chargers, photocopiers and printers are switched off when not in use, including during breaks and at the end of the working day. We will also encourage employees to use heating, lighting and ventilation efficiently and effectively.
- We aim to purchase, and encourage employees to use energy-efficient products, such as energy-saving light bulbs, and when buying new equipment such as laptops we take energy consumption and energy-saving features into account, where possible and appropriate.
- In our shared office space, we explore, and implement as far as we able to, energy-saving measures such as insulation, labelling switches to avoid lights and other appliances being left on when not in use, making use of natural light where possible, encouraging staff to use the stairs, if they can, rather than lifts, monitoring timings and temperatures of heating and cooling systems to see if any energy-saving adjustments can be made, checking the energy efficiency of appliances such as fridges (replacing inefficient models where needed) and replacing kettles with instant boiling water dispensers.
Travel &Amp; Transport
- As a remote workforce, our staff do not commute to the office on a daily basis.
- We use technology for as many meetings as possible to reduce the need to travel.
- Where travel is necessary, we encourage sustainable transport by encouraging staff to use public and active transport to attend meetings. As such we only hold meetings in places which are conveniently accessible by public transport.
- We strongly discourage flights for business use and will only approve them if there is no viable alternative. In the event a flight is necessary, we will appropriately offset the journey.
Measurement and Reporting
Squeaky is working towards the creation and implementation of annual environmental sustainability reporting. This will include information about our approach to sustainability, targets and performance on sustainability. We plan to produce an annual report sharing our Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions targets and performance against those targets.
At the current time, the nature of Squeaky as a remote business, combined with our low carbon emissions means we have decided not to implement Science Based Targets. Instead, our focus is on minimising our own – already low – emissions, and on our core business of powering more corporate businesses and public sector organisations with genuinely clean, low carbon energy. This is where we believe Squeaky has the most impact environmentally.
Customers and Suppliers
As far as possible, we choose suppliers and partners with environmental principles which align with our own. We will try and work with suppliers who have robust environmental, CSR or ESG policies and reporting in place.
We are committed to working with suppliers and customers who share our ethos and vision. More details on who we will and will not work with can be found in our Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Policy.
We know that many of our customers are looking at the sustainability and carbon footprint of their supply chains. Appendix 1 shows an overview of our Squeaky’s emissions performance.
Where possible and upon request we will provide our customers with a sustainability report containing information about the electricity generators relevant to their contract.
Environment Working Group
Squeaky has established an Environment Working Group to proactively monitor its environmental focus, actions and performance. The group meets twice a year to review any new standards or initiatives, look at current practices, and highlight possible improvements. The group will then make recommendations to the Board.
This group in chaired by the Chief Legal and Compliance Officer. Contributions and participation in this working group are actively encouraged within the wider business.
Review and Revocation
This policy will be discussed bi-annually by the Environment Working Group and the group will make recommendations for any necessary changes to ensure that its provisions are in line with our legal obligations, aims and company practices and that Squeaky remains a leader in climate-friendly business practices.
The policy will then be reviewed and re-approved by the Board on an annual basis. The Board is responsible for the communication of any material changes.
Appendix 1: Carbon Emissions Reporting
Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions is a system used to classify an organisation’s greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs), to help measure, manage and reduce business emissions.
The scope 1, 2, and 3 emission system first appeared in the 2001 Greenhouse Gas Protocol, where is it explained. The aim was to clarify what business emissions need to be measured and managed, and how.
Our Obligations and Methodology
Currently, as a small, unquoted company, Squeaky is not obligated to report its emissions. However as an environmentally-focused organisation we are committed to transparency and voluntary reporting. As our customers look to quantify their own Scope 3 emissions, we understand that our voluntary reporting is helpful to them.
Unlike office-based businesses with large numbers of employees, the footprint from Squeaky’s relatively small team and remote working is small. With this in mind, where possible we have used data we already hold, and then made estimates for any gaps, to produce the information below. We have followed the Greenhouse Gas Protocol Corporate Standard and used emissions factors published by BEIS.
Boundary
Under the operational control approach, a company accounts for 100% of emissions from operations over which it or one of its subsidiaries has operational control.
Squeaky’s organizational boundary has been defined under the operational control approach, i.e. where it accounts for 100% of emissions from operations over which it (or one of its subsidiaries) has operational control.
Taking the operational boundary, we have then assessed the activities within it that Squeaky owns or controls. This determined that Squeaky’s emissions-related activities are all either from desk-based office work or business travel, in order to retail electricity to customers, in the UK.
Scope 1 Emissions
Scope 1 emissions are
direct emissions
caused by an entity and its operations, released directly from controlled assets. For Squeaky, Scope 1 emissions would be the combustion of fuel or refrigerant leakage from offices or vehicles it owns or controls. However, Squeaky does not own or operate an office (employees work from home or from time to time in a shared office space). Although Squeaky owns its IT equipment, employees control the charging and operation of these in their homes, not Squeaky. Squeaky also does not own or operate any vehicles (there are no company cars or vans).
Squeaky does not have any relevant assets and as such has no Scope 1 Emissions to report.
Scope 2 Emissions
Scope 2 emissions are
indirect electricity emissions
– GHGs released from the energy purchased from a utility provider. For most organisations, the majority of their scope 2 emissions come from electricity purchased.
As a remote organisation without any buildings, Squeaky does not purchase electricity or heat and therefore does not have any Scope 2 emissions to report.
Scope 3 Emissions
Scope 3 emissions cover all
other indirect emissions
associated with an organisation. These are emissions which come from many sources across an organisation’s supply chain. Scope 3 emissions often account for more than 70% of a business’s carbon footprint.
Squeaky’s financial years are calendar years and this reporting is on that basis. Squeaky’s scope 3 footprint from 1 January 2021 to 31 December 2021 is shown in the chart below. It reflects employee business travel (e.g. by car, train or taxi) estimated from expenses reports. It also includes an estimate of employees’ home-working emissions using a published benchmark (EcoAct, 2020). The Defra emissions factors for 2021 have been used.
Squeaky’s carbon footprint from these sources was approximately
6tCO2e
in 2021. This breaks down as follows:
We will use this data as Squeaky’s base year and compare future years’ footprints to it. We are also considering whether it is worthwhile to extend the scope of the footprint to include other core activities e.g. outsourced services in future years’ reporting.
Policy v1.0. Page last updated 15/09/2022